Gijón's bar culture is inseparable from its cider culture. The sidrería is the dominant social venue — a place that is simultaneously a bar, a restaurant, and a community institution, where a bottle of Asturian cider and a plate of chorizo constitutes a proper evening out. The Cimadevilla quarter has the highest concentration of sidrerías in the city, and the scene there on weekend evenings is one of the more convincing expressions of what the Spanish phrase "salir de tapas" actually means in practice.
Outside the cider bars, Gijón has a conventional bar and cafe infrastructure serving the usual Spanish functions: coffee and pastries in the morning at the cafes on the beach promenade, vermut (vermouth) at noon in the old quarter, and after-dinner drinks in the bars around the central El Bibio park area. The bar scene around Calle Munuza and the streets south of the old town extends later than the sidrerías and attracts a younger crowd. The city's industrial and working-class identity means the bars tend toward the honest and unpretentious end; expensive cocktail bars and rooftop terraces are not the dominant mode here.