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 are 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 bolt-hole. 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.
But not everyone is happy. On the narrow streets outside, Sonia de Gregorio dodges honking tuk-tuk drivers and laments a mother’s struggle to navigate her pushchair through the crowds. De Gregorio, a 57-year-old architecture professor who has spent her whole life in Madrid’s historic centre, says: “Sorry, but I feel rather uncomfortable with the atmosphere here. The tuk-tuks are whizzing past half a metre away. There are people touting things to tourists. And the smell.” Heavy in the air hangs the aroma of fried chicken.