Best environment of Ponzano!!
Summer 2016, a summer terrace and a group of friends surround some half-pints of beer. They grab some bites, nothing special nor exactly healthy. Normally salty, very salty, for as they say, “thirst be with you” and that the rhythm of halves does not stop (the authentic direct marketing of some bars nowadays).
Late in the afternoon, for others well into the night, they decide that the day is not over and that it can surely bring up surprises worth telling the next day. Of the 10 who started only 2 leave the ship. The losers. The other 80% stays, not risking that something happens and “you have to learn about it tomorrow.” Nobody takes a risk, I would not either.
More drunk than fed, because of the salty starters that the barman has seen fit to repeat with each half pint of beer, they leave the terrace and enter the interior of the building to try to get a proper meal and gather strength with some traditional “raciones”, this time not so salty. The range of choices is scarce, and the quality does not help, so they quickly move over to the coffee and to the corresponding digestives. The establishment does not help and that 80% keeps becoming lighter, another two, staying at a 60. It’s midnight, the music goes up and the light goes down a bit, but there is no take off in sight. Another loss of a human and the remaining 50% decides to sit at a high table near the bar, between tired and discouraged and that’s when the magic arises:
“And if we do this, but well done?”
The idea already existed, but with a concept more oriented towards “grabbing a bite” and drinks, both with low quality, or simply to dine with loud music, and prices like the music volume. This group of friends wanted to combine in one location all that they enjoyed doing. To be able to have a few beers and snacks in a modern and pleasant place, to be able to have a seated and calmer dinner with an elaborate and elegant menu and to have the possibility to start (or finish) the night having a few drinks in the same place.
Such is the inflection point of the birth of what they between laughs name an CLP (Complete Leisure Plan). Tired of having to go to one place to chill in, another to dine and another to drink and dance, with the loss of time, money and human resources that it entails, they start to think about creating an attractive space for spending the day, but also nice to have dinner and that also allows to continue almost until the body can bear.
So it is that Maracca comes to life, located in the Ponzano neighborhood in Madrid (Santa Engracia 112) putting together everything that its creators imagined during a hot summer night. A nice, modern and bright bar in which happy-hours, “cañeo-tapas”, dinner and drinks get combined the proper way, while they also have their own weight by themselves. And more and more so as time goes by.
The idea of these 4-5 friends evolves into a partnership of 16 members, led by Jorge Varas and Víctor Mateos, the real hard workers and souls of Maracca. The first thing was the wine menu and the place. Or the place and the wine menu. Or both. And so it was, almost hand in hand, and with the advice of great professionals from the world of hospitality (some have invested in the project and today are still partners) Maracca opened in February 2017 and since then has become a reference of that part of town. A varied, fresh and modern menu (but one that do not make you still feel hungry when finished), together with an avant-garde but fine and elegant decoration, they gave in the key that its creators had imagined that summer of 2016.
A Daily Menu, some suits and ties, a full terrace, a long happy hour, almost all tables reserved for dinner, some high tables filled with a young and not so young crowd, tapas and snacks not always salty, midnight, volume up, lights down , gin & tonics, some dances … any Friday. And a Saturday, even a Sunday. Also during the week.
And the circle had to be closed. Everything started in the appetizer, but it had an end at about 2:30 in the morning. Maybe for some that end came sooner than expected. Something had to be done, and in the next building some empty basement that had once been the offices of a major insurance company. Hands on, a lot of work, and in January of 2019 the eldest son of Maracca was born, the firstborn.
And it was going to be called Piccaro, a place with a disco license in which to continue what has been started, or to start the ending. With two floors and a capacity of about 300 people it was the perfect place to close the circle and never lose more members on the way. There were no excuses.
They had got it and their CLP completed
“Nowadays we all love to enjoy a good meal or dinner accompanied by an eternal after-dinner, and it is just what Grupo Maracca offers us.”
