Madrid and the growing pains of a superstar city
The Spanish capital is changing before its residents’ eyes. Restaurants are even imposing a two-hour limit on diners.
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Fireworks at the start of Spain's Kings League final at the Civitas Metropolitano stadium in Madrid in 2023. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the city has become a magnet for tourists, investors, digital nomads and wealthy plutocrats.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Barney Jopson
Under the wrought iron rafters of Madrid’s San Miguel market, the feasting is accelerating. Long gone are the locals who used to do their grocery shopping at the market, buying whole fish and ruby-red slabs of meat from stallholders they had known for years. Instead, on a recent Friday night, throngs of tourists were clinking glasses of ice-cold beer and gorging on salmon tartare tacos and chorizo hot dogs.
As a gourmet food hub, the market has become a must-see for many visitors to Madrid, one of Europe’s buzziest capitals. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, the city has become a magnet for tourists, investors, digital nomads and wealthy plutocrats in search of a bolthole. The San Miguel market is just one beneficiary, a money-spinner ultimately owned by the Brenninkmeijer family, the Dutch founders of the C&A clothing chain.
