Traditional Madrid tavern cooking, unfussy and rooted in eggs, guisos and the market, the kind of food the city has eaten for generations.

The building itself has held a tavern since 1720, when it was the Posada de San Pedro, known popularly as the Mesón del Segoviano and, until well into the 20th century, a meeting place for writers and Madrid characters. Cava Baja was already known in the 17th century as the arrival point for carters who left from here carrying the mail across Spain. At one time a mule cart and a Detroit-built car stood side by side in the entrance hall, a picture of the changes the house had lived through.

Lucio started there as a boy, and even then his way with people showed: many of the students who tipped him in those years later became public figures and regulars. Doña Petra sold him the house in the last third of the 20th century, and after more than six months of works to shore up the building, Casa Lucio opened in November 1974. Across five decades its tiled dining rooms have drawn kings, prime ministers, actors, bullfighters and writers, and in July 2015 Lucio gathered King Juan Carlos with four democratic prime ministers, González, Aznar, Zapatero and Rajoy, for a photograph at his tables.

Lucio, who prefers to be called a tabernero rather than a restaurateur, is still part of the daily life of the house: in April 2026 his daughter María said he still goes to the restaurant every morning, as he always has. That month, at 93, he attended the opening of an exhibition at Madrid's Casa Nikon, curated by photographer Bernardo Paz, with more than a hundred press and personal photographs of his life behind the bar, always in his white jacket. Asked about his favourite customer, he declined to choose: to him they're all the same, from all over the world.

Much of the staff has been with the house for more than 20 years and knows the habits of almost every regular. The family also runs El Landó, on Plaza de Gabriel Miró, and the Taberna de los Huevos de Lucio across the street at Cava Baja 32, opened in May 2001 with a younger, more casual offer.

Casa Lucio sits on Cava Baja in La Latina, one of the oldest streets in the city. Inside, tiled walls and wooden tables run across a bar at the entrance and two floors, the feel lively, classic and rustic, if firmly on the pricier side for what is ultimately home-style cooking.

The huevos estrellados, fried eggs broken over potatoes, are the house signature and have been since 1974, at €16.50, as is the Revuelto Lucio, eggs scrambled with wild mushrooms and shrimp. The stews follow the week: lentils on Monday, Asturian fabada on Tuesday and cocido madrileño on Wednesday (€32), plus beans with partridge, oxtail and tripe with chickpeas.

Beyond the eggs the carta is classic Madrid: 5J Ibérico ham and loin, croquettes of ham or spinach by the piece (€2.50), callos a la madrileña, artichokes with ham in season, hake battered, Bilbao-style or in green sauce, cocochas, garlic prawns, roast suckling pig, veal meatballs, free-range chicken in pepitoria and a churrasco for two. Desserts run from rice pudding and flan to pan perdido and Tarta de Santiago.