On Calle de Cuchilleros — the narrow lane dropping steeply from Plaza Mayor toward La Latina — Bodegas Ricla is a standing bodega of the kind that once lined every neighbourhood in Madrid. The room is barely a room: a bar, a few barrels, some tiles, and space for the cluster of people who came to drink vermut from a cask and eat anchovies from a tin. The vermouth is red, drawn from a barrel, and served at a temperature that suggests you should have another. Everything else — the medieval street, the absence of a menu, the bartender who remembers your order — is what separates a bodega from a bar.
Location
La Latina, Madrid
Map
Insider Intel
Vermut from the barrel — always red, always cold, always another. Boquerones in vinegar. Olives. Conservas if the tin is open. A glass of cheap tinto to stretch the visit. The simplicity is not a limitation; it is the point of a bodega.
Noon aperitivo, ideally on a Sunday when La Latina fills with the Rastro flea market crowd and the standing bodegas become the natural interval between browsing. Early evening works too. This is not a late-night bar.
Calle de Cuchilleros 6, La Latina. La Latina metro. Vermut EUR 2-3, anchovies EUR 3-4. Standing only. Cash strongly preferred. No website, no Instagram, no reservations. A bodega.