By day it's a bookstore-cafe where Ruzafa's creative class nurses cortados over laptops. By night, the back room becomes one of Valencia's worst-kept speakeasy secrets. The cocktail list reads like someone's been paying attention to what's happening in Barcelona and Madrid but filtered it through Valencia's less pretentious sensibility. Philip K. Dick novels line the walls — the bar takes its sci-fi theme seriously but not obnoxiously. It's the kind of place where a molecular biologist might be making your Negroni variation.
Location
Ruzafa, Valencia
Map
Insider Intel
The house creations change seasonally and feature local ingredients with actual thought behind them. Their take on a Martinez uses Spanish vermouth and housemade bitters. Classic cocktails are executed correctly, which shouldn't be remarkable but is.
After 11pm Thursday through Saturday when the bar crowd takes over from the book browsers. Earlier in the week for a civilized drink without the scene.
Carrer del Literat Azorín 13, Ruzafa/Eixample border (postal 46006). A bookshop-café with a quieter rhythm than the Ruzafa brunch cafés — particularly suitable for writing, research and concentrated reading.