Aprendiendo a ...

minesobriefly:

This list reminds me of so many great things about Madrid. I’m pleased that the “mítico chino subterráneo” was included (it doesn’t look like much, but the food is fantastic). I used to live across the street from the Plaza de España and would eat there often. I love how people act like it’s Madrid’s best-kept secret when on weekends it’s not unusual to see people waiting outside in droves, trailing back aboveground. 

Not on this list is the secret restaurant on calle San Lorenzo that is only open late at night. Finding a place to eat in Madrid at 3:00 or 4:00 or 5:00 in the morning is not so easy, which makes this place all the more attractive to people like me who get hungry and want to eat after a long night of carousing. I never knew it’s real name (we always called it Super Secret Spaghetti’s), but I just looked it up, and it’s called Leidy Pepa. You knock on the door and smile for whoever comes upstairs to let you in. There’s always some kind of music going on, even if it’s just other patrons with their guitars. They have a piano down there, too, which the owner let me play once on a rare night when somebody else wasn’t already performing. After I had worn myself out (I am, let’s say, particularly enthusiastic at the piano under certain circumstances), the owner sat down and played “Arthur’s Theme” as I returned to my friends and finished my plate of spaghetti.

(Source: viviendomadrid.com)