Ultramarinos: The Secret Store Bars of Cádiz
NOTE: Updated on December 10, 2022, with a new ultramarinos tapas bar in Cádiz.
No visit to Cádiz, that mysterious city in southern Spain, is complete without visiting at least one ultramarinos store bar right in the old town.
The City of Cádiz
Cádiz is most famous for its Carnival, that wintertime festival full of costumed revelers and humorous songs, and many people know little else about that far-flung southern Spanish city. Delving just beneath the surface you find a Cádiz whose unique character is transmitted through the food and drink hidden away in bars and casual eateries across the city. Although in recent years restaurants in Cádiz serving upscale neotraditional fare have captured national and international attention, the city is still home to some of Andalusia’s most traditional tapas bars.
Surrounded by water on three sides, Cádiz is a world unto itself, an island, suspended in a kind of estado puro, almost untouched. The old town–formerly walled–of Cádiz feels lost in time. Narrow streets harken back to the city’s 18th-century glory days when Cádiz was a global trading hub. Ships brought goods from Spain’s vast empire in the Americas and the Pacific and unloaded at Cádiz. They reloaded for the return journeys with colony-bound products. Ultramarinos were born organically from this commerce.
How Did Ultramarinos Begin?
Ultramarinos were originally stores selling dry goods for the overseas trade, (overseas is ultramar in Spanish). In other parts of Spain, a sign saying ultramarinos almost always leads to a store selling drinks and beans and perhaps deli products, but in Cádiz it most likely indicates a store cum tapas bar. At an ultramarinos bar you can consume the products–often canned or preserved–rather than buy them to go. The most common bites on offer are charcuterie, cheese, and local cured fish, washed down with beer or wine or sherry from nearby Jerez or Sanlúcar. Gaditanos love ultramarinos bars and crowd into them before lunch and dinner year round for a drink and a tapa.
Why Are Ultramarinos Popular in Cádiz?
Why are ultramarinos interesting to locals and visitors alike? They have incredible charm, first and foremost. Ultramarinos used to be very common in Cádiz, and most of the remaining ones have decades of history. You feel you’ve stepped back in time. You crowd yourself in along an old wooden bar in a historic building with high ceilings and walls decorated with old posters while surrounded by happy locals.
The overarching reason ultramarinos have remained popular, however, is because they serve great quality products. The surviving ultramarinos in Cádiz often morphed into purveyors of gourmet foods such as jamón ibérico, Payoyo cheese from the Cádiz mountains, mojama from Barbate, and canned fish from the best producers in Spain. The ability to go to a democratic bar and consume some of the best products available is a true luxury. The continued popularity of these bars shows the respect that locals have for traditional products and for their particular kind of tapas bar. Gaditanos (Cádiz residents) want ultramarinos bars to exist forever, and so will you once you visit one.
What to Eat at an Ultramarinos Bar
The usual time to stop in at an ultramarinos is between noon and 3 pm before having lunch, or between 7 and 9 pm before having dinner. Pre.meal tapas. You can also make a meal of it and hop from bar to bar having a tapa or two at each. The specialties vary from bar to bar, but popular items include chicharrones, roasted pork belly sliced thin and served cold; mojama, salted dried wild-caught tuna from the coast near Cádiz; and Payoyo cheese, an award-winning cured goat cheese from the Sierra de Cádiz mountains. The most common drinks are beer, red or white wine, sherry wine such as light manzanilla or aged amontillado, or local vermouth.
Essential Ultramarinos Bars in Cádiz
Taberna Las Banderas
One of the oldest bars in Cádiz, Las Banderas reopened in 2022 as an ultramarinos bar with a superb selection of sherry, charcuterie, cheese and gourmet canned fish. The narrow space with its high ceilings in the popular La Viña neighborhood dates to 1892, and the new owners have maintained its essence with exposed stone, colorful tiles, and a marble-topped bar that forms the nerve center of this already beloved spot. The wine list is extensive. The main attractions include a wide variety of sherries offered by the glass and the local red and white wines from small producers. You’ll also find a quality vermouth list that includes noteworthy sherry vermouths.
True to its identity as an ultramarinos, or historic Cádiz store bar, the tapas menu consists mainly of quality charcuterie, cheese, and canned or cured fish. Featured are world-class Iberian ham, award-winning Spanish cheese and canned seafood delicacies from the Spanish coasts. Las Banderas takes the concept of an ultramarinos and elevates it while maintaining the democratic and lovable nature of these Cádiz institutions. Find a table inside or outside or simply stand at the bar with a glass of wine in your hand and relax into the low-key rhythm of Cádiz.
Taberna Casa Manteca
Taberna Casa Manteca is famous in Cádiz, and for good reason. Originally a neighborhood store, in the 1950s it was converted into a tapas bar after the clientele started eating (and drinking) their purchases there. The founder, Pepe “El Manteca”, spent a time as a bullfighter, and the inside of the bar is covered in bullfighting memorabilia, including some from Pepe’s own career. Casa Manteca is famous for their papelones, portions of sliced charcuterie or cheese served on pieces of deli paper. They are best known for chicharrones especiales, pork belly that has been cooked whole and cured, sliced thin, and served cold with lemon and salt. Everyone orders them. Arrive at opening time to guarantee a place at the bar or at an outside barrel, otherwise you risk being at the back of a four or five person deep throng vying for access to the bar.
El Veedor
Ultramarinos El Veedor combines an ultramarinos store and an ultramarinos bar in one long and narrow space. The walls are lined with shelves and tiny nooks holding anything you could need from a neighborhood store: rice, bread, wine, potato chips, even cleaning products. On one side of the long, narrow bar is the deli counter, where hand-cut Iberian ham and gourmet cheese and charcuterie are available to go. The rest of El Veedor is a bar, serving mainly the same cheese and charcuterie alongside Spanish pantry comfort dishes like habitas con jamón. Unlike many ultramarinos, El Veedor does have cooked dishes, most notably half a dozen styles of tortilla española. There is beer on tap, wine by the glass, and sherry served fresh from barrels at the end of the bar. Like many ultramarinos, El Veedor has unusual hours for a bar, opening early in the morning to accommodate both shopping and pre-meal tapas.
Pelayo
Pelayo is a project created by the owner of beloved restaurant El Terraza, a Cádiz classic with tables facing the Cathedral. A top-tier gourmet store and deli in the front of Pelayo offers the best products from Cádiz province and beyond alongside an excellent selection of sherry wines. Outside, there are shelf tables where you can sample the products from the store, but the real surprise is in the back. A large collection of vintage motorcycles and memorabilia lines the walls leading to a small area featuring tables and a bar where savvy gaditanos meet to drink sherry and sample the daily cooked specials or deli products. You’ll often be greeted by the owner himself, a gracious host welcoming you to a bar that feels like a private club.
La Sopresa
La Sorpresa was an old ultramarinos store from the 1950s hidden on a small street near Cádiz’s central market. Today, following the original owner’s retirement, it has been resurrected as one of the most popular aperitif spots in the city. Beer on tap, a wide selection of wine by the glass and bottle, and sherry from barrels (sourced from Delgado Zuleta in Sanlúcar) help wash down charcuterie, canned fish, and a selection of top-quality tuna from the almadrabas of the Cádiz coast. The old store counter has been preserved as a spot to buy top quality fish conservas, complete with the old mechanical scale. You can enjoy your tapas at the bar, at the classic high barrel-like tables outside, or, unusually for an ultramarinos, at proper tables in the back.
La Cepa Gallega
La Cepa Gallega was a true Cádiz ultramarinos, a trader of products with the New World-bound ships at Cádiz’s port in the late 19th century. As shipping activity declined, the owners converted the place into a store and bar selling gourmet products. In 2018 the bar was reopened under new ownership while maintaining the offerings, decor, and even employees of this century-old gem. The warm and crowded interior is filled with wine bottles and businessmen or politicians hatching deals, while the outdoor terrace offers (wine) barrel tables with stools. An astute selection of wines and sherries by the glass engender local loyalty. You can’t go wrong if you copy what the regulars order: chicharrones, jamón ibérico, Iberian charcuterie, mojama, canned fish (conservas) and other delicacies. Owner and wine aficionado Bernardo, who reopened this jewel after being a loyal customer himself, is as passionate a host as you could ask for, helping to guide each and every customer.