Get your morning/afternoon coffee in Malasaña, Madrid
It is 11 am, I am still in bed and I need my morning cup of coffee to start my day off right!
Today is Saturday and I am certainly not cloistering myself home on a Saturday! But when I look throughout the window, I see some dark and thick clouds looming on the horizon: they are nimbostratus clouds. I identified them in a blink because they are quite wide and look as if they are illuminated from within. They are carrying rain, that’s for sure. But the bad thing about this kind of clouds is that they can act for a long time normally with soft rain. Just as a note, these clouds tend to form ahead of a warm front. It seems like I may not be grabbing my coffee out on a terrace but I am definitely not letting this poor weather ruin my day.
Malasaña, one of my favourite neighbourhoods of Madrid. It literally starts one street away from my apartment. I lose myself through the streets: Calle La Palma, Calle Espiritu Santo, Calle Pez and consider the countless coffee shops on my way: La Lolina, Toma Café, Café Sansejo but I actually know precisely where I am going. I am heading to the Café de la Luz. It is that one place I love the most to sit back on a rainy day and I’d recommend it to anybody willing chill for a little while.
Small café but such a cosy place! Very nicely decorated and they serve delicious coffee.
Everything about this place makes it warm and welcoming, starting with the furniture: the wooden tables, comfortable chairs and sofas make you feel like you are in a cocoon and what’s not to be missed, of course, is the well thought out lighting which probably owes the Café its name: one feels discretely surrounded by a mixture of styles going from a beautiful Victorian lampshade with fringe to Bauhaus pendant lights that give you a glimpse of the Roaring Twenties.
Also, the atmosphere of the café is quite unique. Having lived in some major busy European capital cities, I have always struggled finding quiet places to write, read or work on my computer. I mean, I am not talking about getting to the first Starbucks I come across, come one guys, let’s be a bit more authentic!
I can tell you I spent many afternoons in the Café de la luz with or without company. It’s not silent there, but it is not loud and agitated either! Just the perfect balance! This is the kind of place you want to bring your romantic date to or meet up with that old friend of yours you haven’t seen in months!
By the way, It rained. Actually a lot, but… let just Fall be Fall.
To be noticed: the café offers a variety of double-flavoured fruit smoothies that are absolutely divine! My favourite one: the banana-strawberry smoothie.
The address: Calle Puebla, 8, 28004 Madrid, Spain. Metro Gran Via –
