So, it’s a Tuesday, it’s midnight, but you want to carry on drinking and listen to some good music. What are your options? Well, in Madrid, there are lots. This city specialises in late night music bars, late night fun and late night assignations. It’s a late night / early morning kinda place.
One of Madrid-Uno’s favourite spots for mid-week partying is El Junco, a jazz bar and long-standing refuge for the the night birds of Malasaña. It’s open every night from 11.00pm to 6.00am and will usually have a live band on until about 3.00am (modern jazz or blues plus pick-up sessions) followed by the resident DJs (mixing jazz with funky house and classic soul). At weekends it’s usually DJ only and tends toward the more soul music side of things (think James Brown / Rose Royce).
Located on the corner of Plaza Santa Bárbara (Metro: Alonso Martínez) its position makes it ideal for those wandering back from the town centre or those heading into it, and so on Friday and Saturday nights it’s usually rammed – with a long queue to get in if you arrive any later than midnight. But for, say, a Tuesday / Wednesday / Thursday it’s usually OK.
This particular night was a classic example of how it works: Madrid-Uno arrives at midnight and walks straight in, grabbing the last remaining spot at the bar and ordering a whisky-coke. Half an hour later is in deep conversation with a couple of lovely ladies who are ‘gastronomic journalists’ (nice work if you can get it) and the place is slowly filling up. By 2.00am it’s virtually full, the three-piece band for the night are now joined on stage by some of their jazz friends (inlcuding an excellent saxophonist) and our group has grown into about eight people – four Spanish, a Puerto Rican with one of those rings people put through their nose, a Frenchie, a completely plastered Austrian who is clearly on a mission to obliterate himself, and M1. A couple of hours flash by, more drinks, the DJ takes over from the band. Some people are slipping out for a few breaths of fresh air (and others to toke) but there’s no-one on the door so no issues with tickets or anything. By 6.00am, chucking out time, the place is still 3/4 full and some of my new compadres are heading off to shower up and get ready for work. Austrian chap has collapsed in the flower bed outside. Puerto Rican nose-ring babe is snogging the DJ, and M1 gets a ride on the back of a moped all the way back to his pad from an acquaintance of the journalists – even though he’s only met me for a couple of hours. Complete lunacy for a school-night but so typical of this city.
This is definitely a recommended place, but I would avoid it for a Friday or Saturday night simply because it gets so completely full. There have been rumours that they water the drinks down but in my experience this has never been the case. I usually go for Dewars White Label and, whilst I’m no expert, I know my brand and what I got served at El Junco was definitely authentic.
El Junco – jazz, blues, friendly, funky, but liable to make work the next morning a difficult place to be.
