Bars with decorations set in Disney movies, establishments inspired by the 80s, cafes where you can have a snack with adoptable cats. The offer to go out is increasingly specific, more themed, more designed to surprise.
In a country wheremeet for a drink“is part of the social DNA, bars have historically been much more than places of consumption: they have been meeting points where we celebrate and catch up. And this ritual has not disappeared. The study Socialization trends and habits points out that bars, restaurants or cafes are the preferred places to socialize for 79% of Spaniards. A figure that places us above the European average: 63% choose to go to bars compared to 48% of Europeans.
This preference also translates into a numerical reality. According to INE dataIn Spain there are more than 163,000 drinking establishments – bars, cafes or pubs – which is approximately one establishment for every 290 inhabitants. That is to say: we continue going out, we continue choosing the bar, but something is changing.
Because although the habit remains, the way of deciding and living it responds to new logic.
“Youth leisure has been reconfigured”
Ana, 29 years old—one of the young women who agreed to speak with Xataka preserving his identity—he acknowledges that he rarely goes to “regular bars,” in fact they make him “quite lazy.” He believes that today the new generations tend to prefer a type of leisure that is far from what their parents could have: “In my group of friends (and in general) I see that we go less and less to traditional bars or restaurants and we prefer slightly different places, or even chains.”
Raquel, 22, doesn’t usually go to “normal” bars either. And although if you have friends who have a “neighborhood bar” specifically as a “meeting point”, he understands that new generations are attracted to “different” plans: “For example, I saw a place where you make the pizza yourself, they help you make it and then you eat it. That cannot compete with a restaurant or a bar.”
For Alejandro MonteroHealth Psychologist and disseminator in social networksyoung people seem to “prioritize experiences that are memorable beyond a habitual pattern of socialization, as could be seen in other generations.” He comments how before the “most frequent and most accessible plan could be going to a bar”, but today there is a “variability” – from jazz shows among hundreds of candles and workshops to paint a picture while drinking wine, to restaurants themed in Harry Potter – that “influences the choice of the leisure plan.”
For Raquel, for example, it is increasingly important that the places where she stays be “pretty”something that does not usually fit with traditional bars: “I would tell you that 90% of traditional bars are not pretty (…) I prefer it to be pretty to look at, better than the typical bar with the steel bar.” In this sense, he understands that his generation is “bored” of having a coffee “where they always do” and prefers to go to places where you can “paint your own cup while having a snack.”
The coffee, better specialty.
In this context, Esther Clavero Mira, doctor in sociology, warns of the danger of “falling into the temptation of thinking that any time in the past was betteras Jorge Manrique wrote.” She talks about how nostalgia can evoke “crowded discos” or “endless bars” that we no longer see today, and because of that “mental album” we can think that young people no longer go out. However, the psychologist believes that “youthful leisure has not disappeared, it has been reconfigured.”
The hospitality sector is also aware of this change. Juanjo Cuevas, who has been dedicated to the hospitality industry for more than 15 years, believes that “the future of traditional bars is complicated.” Run a irish pub in Arganzuela, The Towerswhich he himself places “between the neighborhood bar and the theme bar.” “Irish pubs were set up as themed, but not in the same sense as now,” he clarifies. This intermediate position, he explains, also allows him to attract young people, something that, he believes, other more traditional bars have increasingly difficult to do.
He sees how more and more young people are opting for themed establishments and leaving the usual businesses in the background. In addition, along with other colleagues, he has detected a change in consumer habits. “They have stopped going to eat. Young people don’t eat in a normal bar,” he says.
He explains that they do still go down to have a drink—“beers or wines under their house”—but that when it comes to sitting down to eat the profile is different: “Here the few that come are from nearby companies, offices or neighbors, but young people come to eat, nothing. And the same thing happens to the bars and restaurants in the area, they go mainly retirees and workers.”
Social networks, the new “word of mouth”
Irene, a 26-year-old young woman, is sure that new generations are more inclined towards experiences, and attributes a “fundamental” role to social networks: “Everything is spread through them. Thanks to social networks I have discovered a lot of plans that I would never have discovered on my own.” For Elena, 27 years old, these platforms are a “great source of information” to obtain “recommendations, compare and see opinions…”.
This shows that the change in the type of leisure also affects how it is organized, discovered or decided: “Social networks are the new word of mouth,” explains Ana.
Alcohol, better with experiences.
According to Montero, in 2024 68% of young people At the national level, they reported the daily use of social networks, something that “affects the way they relate to each other.” They not only influence the accessibility and knowledge of new experiences, but also the construction of a public identity: what we decide to show and share with others. In this search for a “life narrative”, social networks offer young people infinite possibilities to fill their lives with unforgettable and shareable experiences. In fact, the psychologist mentions that, according to studies, 39% of young people say that they would only book a vacation after seeing the destination on social networks.
The young women who have spoken with Xataka acknowledge that they are influenced by the content they see on social networks. Raquel, for example, has folders created on the different platforms where she collects “eye-catching” sites that she would like to go to, whether “because of the theme, the price or everything together.”
Juanjo Cuevas also sees it in his daily life with his clients. He is sure that social networks are the “new way of communicating” for young people, and that they also expand the catalog of plans far beyond what previous generations had. Observe how when young people go to a “normal” bar, they rarely share where they are; At most, they advertise the food or the company. On the other hand, in themed bars “they do the advertising themselves” showing “everything”: the space, the decoration, every detail.
“A leisure model linked to consumption”
Sociologist Clavero wonders if, taking this context into account, “we have built a leisure model almost exclusively linked to consumption.” “Those who can, accumulate experiences, those who cannot, adjust their world,” he says.
Irene observes that more “calm” or less spending-related plans are becoming less common. She acknowledges that “it’s good to spend an afternoon with your friends in a ceramics workshop, it’s a different type of leisure time,” but she regrets that the afternoons “with a bench and pipes” or “staying in a house” have been “a little lost.” Plans that succeed on social networks involve advance planning and, in many cases, a high economic cost. As Elena points out, having something in a bar has “nothing to do” with “going to a sushi where robots serve you food”: neither in the proposal nor in the price.
The choice to invest time and money in these different activities could, in some cases, be motivated by the FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), that fear of missing out on something. For Montero, the FOMOthe constant use of social networks and the “overexposure of our lives” directly influence the choice of leisure. Certain experiences can be chosen not so much because of the genuine desire to do them, but because of the need not to be left out of the conversation, to not be the only one who has not tried the place that everyone is talking about.
Faced with young people who increasingly choose a type of leisure more linked to experience, there are still some who demand “bars with napkins on the floor.” This is the case of Irene, who laments: “In city centers there are fewer and fewer typical bars where people go about their daily lives.
It could be Madrid, Vigo, Zaragoza, Brussels, Chicago or Hong Kong.
Everything is designed for large locations and big brands, for chains that you can find in Seville or Madrid, but also in London or Hong Kong,” and adds: “Experiences are good, but the ideal is to seek balance, I really advocate and defend bars with napkins on the floor.”
Lifelong businesses are important to the leader of The Towers, since they represent “the movement of the city.” At the same time, it marks a clear difference between the themed and traditional bars: while the former “usually serve only for lunch and dinner,” the latter are something else. “It’s having a beer with friends, a coffee with neighbors… It’s lunches, dinners and everything that happens in between. The neighborhood bar is where people move, where they have a coffee, a beer, a wine… If the traditional bars disappear, everything would be lost. The city would be half dead.”
Elena’s group of friends, despite being open to new plans, are faithful to their trusted bars. He believes that they offer something unique that cannot be found in “modern bars”: “Neighborhood bars are the ones that make me feel like I’m in my city (…) It’s nice to see how they evolve, how the city changes as you grow (…) The plan that I like to share the most with my friends or my family is to be in those old, old bars.”
Image | David Hill
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