The last surviving bar from the Movida madrileña — the post-Franco cultural explosion of the late 1970s — La Vía Láctea has been on Calle de Velarde since 1979 and has barely changed. The interior is a shrine to Movida culture: walls covered in concert posters, portraits of rock stars, and accumulated iconography from four decades of bohemian Madrid nightlife.
It fills up on weekends with a mix of old regulars who remember the original Movida and younger visitors who come for the history. The music is loud and tends toward classic rock and Spanish pop from the 1980s. Not a place for conversation. Metro Tribunal.