La Pajarita

La Pajarita, the oldest chocolate shop in Madrid, was founded in 1852 in the Puerta del Sol, by the present owner’s great grandfather at Puerta del Sol. They also owned a shop’s branch opened in 1969 at Villanueva St., right in front of the Museo Arqueologico and the Biblioteca Nacional. Today it is the only one that does exist. Its name is due to the coffee shop’s gatherings of that time where literature characters as Miguel de Unamuno used to make paper birds or Pajaritas.

They sell hand-made sweet and chocolates of sixteen different flavours. It was so famous that even the main character of a zarzuela piece was called after this shop since she was also described as sweet as the candies. That took place in 1913 when the zarzuela was published by Casa Dotesio.