Analogue Guide Madrid

Analogue Guides are a series of curated city guidebooks featuring high-quality, low-key venues distilled through the lens of the neighborhood. Each neighborhood is complemented by a concise set of sophisticated listings, including restaurants, cafés, bars, hotels, and serendipitous finds, all illustrated with photographs. The listings are supplemented by user-friendly maps to facilitate navigation of the cityscape. By highlighting aspects of the urban patina frequently lost under the corporate veil of large restaurant groups and ubiquitous chains, the mood and feel of each unique city is captured. The result is a compact, efficient manual celebrating the ingenuity of the contemporary metropolis.

Despite its marked conservative bent, Madrid is perhaps the least classical of Europe’s great capitals. The late-19th-century Spanish Restoration had kept the city on the sidelines of history, where it developed its devout and remote image, but the end of Franco’s dictatorship put a sudden stop to decades of abstinence as the movida’s frenzy of creativity and freedom put the city firmly back on the map. From the high-density gay-liberal vitality of Chueca and youthful dynamism of Malasaña, to Serrano’s sedate retro-glam and the cutting-edge creativity of Lavapiés, Madrid has a vast range of diversion on offer. The guide represents a shortlist of the best of this.