Museo Chicote, Madrid’s grand dame

Perico Chicote, owner of Museo Chicote, toasting Ernest Hemingway.

The first time I visited Madrid’s Museo Chicote, which isn’t a museum at all but a bar, Franco was still alive and the place was full of expensive tarts—the type that ask you to buy them a drink, not the dessert. Which was a shame considering that back in its heyday in the 40s, it was one of those places, like The Ritz, that everyone went to for a cocktail—Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra, Ernest Hemingway and Grace Kelly, Liz Taylor and James Stewart. You name it.

Since Chicote was just down the street from my hotel, De las Letras, I decided to take a stroll down Gran Via Saturday night to see how the ol’ gal was doing. Guess what? She looked grand. Evidently she’d been purchased a few years back by a young group of investors whose goal was to bring her back to her former majesty. From my visit, I’d say they succeeded. Papa would have approved.