It’s no secret that I absolutely love Granada.
The Alhambra, Albayzin, delicious tapas, beautiful architecture, great university life and its general all-around coolness make it my favorite city on earth. And what is my all-time favorite hangout there? Why Café Fútbol of course!
Who would have thought that three American girls starting a four month journey studying abroad in Granada would be placed just a few blocks from one of the most iconic cafes in the entire city?
Well we were just that lucky, I suppose!
Where is Café Fútbol?
Located at the Plaza Mariana just a block from the Correos (post office) in the city center is Café Fútbol, a three-story restaurant, with a vintage interior that makes you feel like you stepped back into 1970. The waiters (generally older Spanish men) all wear white button downs and don’t think it’s out of the ordinary for one to be smoking a cigarette while they take your order. All part of the charm I suppose.
My First Café Fútbol Experience
My first experience with Café Fútbol was meeting friends for sangria before we had our tour of the Alhambra, the massive Moorish palace Granada is famous for. That may have been a bit of a mistake…
As this was my first extended time period in Europe, I still wasn’t accustomed to living life outside the American norms. In the U.S. sangria is typically really sweet, made with wine, fruit and some juices and it is never very strong. What we didn’t know was that in many places in Spain and definitely at Café Fútbol they also add some sort of liquor, in this case I think it was a brandy.
At only 2 euro-something each, it’s hard to drink just one of their delicious sangrias.
So, naturally, we had two.
And then we were drunk.
The sangrias at Café Fútbol are very strong.
That would have been okay if were just going back to the apartment or out for the night. But instead we were about to begin a multiple hour tour around one of the largest palaces I’ve ever seen, in temperature that was over 30 degrees Celsius! It was rough. But naturally, we now knew where to go for sangria!
Oh, And The Churros Con Chocolate Are Delicious!
I didn’t get to know the real specialty of Café Fútbol until a few weeks later, when our study abroad program invited us all for churros con chocolate (churros with chocolate) at an iconic Granada restaurant. You guessed it- Café Fútbol!
Words cannot express how delicious they were. I am dying to go back for more.
It turns out there is a reason the churros and chocolate at Café Fútbol are superb. It began in 1903 as a milk selling business, they moved to the current location in 1910, and over time began to specialize in ice cream and chocolate, thus churros and chocolate seemed to be the obvious next step.
Today, you can still choose from a wide selection of tasty looking ice cream dishes as well as typical Spanish meals.
For me, however, nothing will beat sitting out on their outdoor tables in the middle of the plaza on a warm fall day and drinking the best sangria I’ve had in my life with some great friends.
Featured image from fraboof via Flickr.
