La Venencia is a long, narrow sherry bar in Las Letras that has been operating since the 1930s. It served as a Republican meeting place during the Spanish Civil War; the bar's rules - which look eccentric today - were originally security measures and have been kept on as house style. Hemingway drank here. The interior has not been substantially touched in eighty years. The bar serves five sherries from the cask, nothing else (with a small selection of cured-meat tapas to go with them). Walk in and the bartender will explain, gently, how the visit works. Here is what he will say.
