Bars
As the lyrics to the song “Bares, qué lugares…”
It is said that there is no better way to understand a neighborhood than getting to know its bars. A tour through the cafes of La Ribera by the hand of its owners, a vivid reflection of the evolution of the neighborhood and its inhabitants in the last decades.
Victor arrived to the neighborhood in 1989 to work in a household appliance company. He and his family were the alma mater of this bar until 2015.
The name of the bar is a heritage of its former owner, Julian. In his memory a commemorative plaque is kept in the petril, in front of the bar, where he used to go and take some fresh air at 15.30 after the menu service.
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Urederra is the first bar we find when entering La Ribera. Still known by many as "the Zorrozaurre", it was born in 2002 on the initiative of David Isasi Carrascosa, who still runs it.
David says that the first owner of the bar was a Vicinay worker who, when the night shift was over, made sandwiches to sell to the workers of the same company. They say that he also used to cut hair.
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Among a lot of years Ribera Bar was managed by Luis "El Chapas" and his partner Mari Mar, neighbors from Ribera de Deusto during their whole life. At the bar took place the best card plays and on Sundays it even worked as a rustled up hair salon.
Before being a bar it was occupied by some other companies such as Electricidad Uria.
For more than 10 years Ribera Bar was managed by Vanesa and Jon Ander, who helped her during the afternoon. In the pictures we can see the bar before and after the rehabilitation as well as Raquel, "The Grandmother" during her goodbye for the retirement from her position as a cook at "El Ribera".
Nowadays Olga and "El rubio" run the bar.
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Ángel and Natalia accompanied the neighborhood for years at Begoña Bar,making the best potato omelettes of La Ribera.
Before being El Begoña the local was also the Bar Morga, owned by Santi (along with the Bar Santi), as well as the neighborhood's tobacco shop.
In 2014 it was closed for the rehabilitation of the building, and in 2015 it opened its doors again with new owners.
Now the bar is managed by Emilio who arrived to the neighborhood to run its historic bar. His tortillas are still very good.
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Although in recent years it has had several owners, Bar Santi has always been associated with the friendly Javi, who worked hard giving meals to the workers of the adjacent companies.
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Bar César has been with us since 1981 and it even had four workers at the time. Before being the César it was the Bar Mendieta, known in the neighborhood as "El bigotes" (moustache) or "El de Manu".
César, the owner, says that when there were many factories in the neighborhood, he filled the bar with coffees for the workers who asked for the complete coffee: coffee, a drink and a cigar.
The bar closed for a while due to the renovation works and it currently serves new customers that come from the neighboring project Digipen.
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