Calle Laurel and the cluster of streets around it — particularly Calle San Juan and Calle Travesía de Laurel — constitute one of Spain's great bar-crawl districts. The system is simple: you move from bar to bar with friends, ordering a glass of Rioja and a pintxo (a small tapa on a piece of bread) at each stop, paying almost nothing, and continuing until everyone has eaten their fill. The social ritual is called the "poteo" and it is taken very seriously by Logroño residents.
Each bar tends to specialise in one or two pintxos done exceptionally well — mushrooms with garlic and prawns at one, deep-fried sweetbreads at another, anchovy with piquillo pepper at a third. The competition is intense and the standard is high. The bars open at around seven or eight in the evening and the street fills up quickly; by nine it is packed, by ten it is extraordinary. This is not a tourist experience, it is the actual social life of the city, and it costs surprisingly little.