Madrid has more suitable venues to get steaming drunk in than the whole of Belgium… or Norway… or the rest of Europe put together (depending on who you listen to). And more ways to get plastered, as well. A night on the Fino? Rounding off the evening with one glass too many of Vermut de Barril?

One bar, however, specialises in the drink most guaranteed to end your night with memory loss, and render the rest of your weekend utterly useless. And in style. Manuelas is a very cool bar. I was in there last Friday around 8pm and the basic make up of the crowd was: canoodling couples, groups sitting around the large marble tables playing board games (piles of which sit up against one wall in the middle the room), a lone man sipping a very large whiskey and proof reading photocopied poetry, a photographer, chess players, and one very attractive waitress. All surrounded by oil paintings, fluted pillars, decorous mirrors, and a gold-embroidered ceiling. No one was sipping absynth, yet. That mad pursuit begins long past midnight…

Address: San Vicente Ferrer, 29, Malasaña (Map)