Neither gourmet taverns nor glasses of glasses: the place that triumphs on Ponzano Street in Madrid is a 1958 churrería

In the middle of Ponzano, one of the fashionable gastronomic miles in Madrid, surrounded by garitos with hooligan names such as Malparida, Meneo, Riverita or Papaya, is the churrería. Thus, without more. «Churrería – French potatoes», announce the white letters of their discreet green benty Churrería. «We have customers from 30 and 40 years ago,» confirms Alberto Cuenca, one of the two brothers at the head of the family business. “My grandfather [Julián] He put the business on Zurbarán Street in 1958, but they expropriated and came here, which belonged to a fishmonger, ”explains Alberto.“ To a carbon! ”, His older brother corrects him, which is shaping and fringing the churros while he cuts porras and dispatches in the counter. Whatever it was before, they have been together for 20 years in business and both agree that the commercial life of Ponzano It has changed a lot in the last century. Then everything has been reforming and now there are only bars, ”laments Javier. More information the churrería is small, in front of the counter fit a couple of customers at most, hence it is always full and there is almost always a tail. At seven in the morning – they are at 6.15 from Monday to Friday and 7.00 on Saturdays -, a worker of the nearby day center for Santa Engracia parks the van. ration of churros and batons that you cannot avoid the tooth before starting again. that will travel by motorcycle to a nearby Civil Guard barracks. «The arches, the torreznos, the shield, the Tormes river …», list, to name a few.A client leaves the Julián Cuenca de la Fuente Churrería, on Ponzano Street in Madrid, on March 24, 2025. Alvaro Garcíalos Brothers usually start the working day at 4.45 in the morning from Monday to Saturday. «If there is a request at 4.00 OA 4.30,» Alberto details. It is then when they prepare the dough, handmade, without the help of any machine. Madrugón does not care, but Javier, who is the one who normally takes care of the huge pan, says that the hardest thing of this work is heat. «Heat and make the dough,» he says. A dough that only carries water, flour, salt and a lot of effort. «You have to do them very peacefully,» says his brother as the formula of the success of their products. The churros cost 30 cents the unit and the batons, 50 cents – in home service to companies the price of any product is increased by 10%. They also sell fried potatoes, bark, toasts, almonds, pine nuts, nuts … that often serve as an appetizer in the bars of the area. In some shelves are also stacked piparras or mussels that offer their customers. «The theme of the churros dispatched it until 11.00 and the part of nuts until 14.00,» explains Javier. «We close at 14.00, if they leave us,» his brother jokes. They say that the place is somewhat renovated, but inside it seems that time has not passed, that everything follows as when their parents or even grandparents run the business: the cash register, the price poster … but, above all, it is the close treatment with the customers, that wonder and talk about life, which now seems in danger of extinction around it. When the last noctambles retire home after a swap night on Ponzano Street, the Cuenca brothers are already working, but they try to open when they have already left, instead of taking advantage of the box at their expense. «Yes, because if they do not stay here to chat and give voices and can bother the neighbors,» justifies the oldest.Javier, the eldest of the Cuenca brothers who currentThe churros, made with a handmade mass by the brothers, enter the fryer. «With three or four churros it is worth it, I am eating them on the way. Now that I see that he is doing them, if he gives them warm, better,» requests a client.A ristra of churros freshly made in the Churrería Julián Cuenca de la Fuente (30 cents the unit) .álvaro GarcíaAlberto, the little brother, cuts the cheers in practically identical sizes almost without looking, as long as Chocolate. —To day, of course, «Remata Alberto.» Here, with us, the story is over. Luckily (or unfortunately for them), they still have much to knead. «My brother has nine years left and I have 15 left,» says Alberto. «Then, when he leaves, I also leave, it depends how the market is,» «If you give me flowers that are margaritas and with a lot of ice,» says a phrase written with neon lights inside a chin of the churrería. The Cuenca brothers do not need any of that, the appetizing aroma of the churros that extends down the street is enough claim to want to enter or so that it does not matter waiting outside, queuing.