In fact, the Varela café on Calle de Preciados has been known since 1884, the date on which Silvestre Díaz Varela opened the doors of an establishment that would later offer windows not only to Calle Preciados, but also to Calle Veneras, and would end for becoming a cozy space where the cream of several generations of writers and artists would come together. The Machado brothers, Pío Baroja, Miguel de Unamuno and the poet Emilio Carrere participated in its famous gatherings, who wrote a large part of his work at the café tables, and who receives the well-deserved tribute of a commemorative plaque in the current café. After a brief hiatus during the Civil War, gatherings would return there with characters such as Antonio Mingote, Rafael Azcona and Gloria Fuertes. Music would also have its place in the Café Varela, where live performances were frequent at the end of the forties and during the fifties: the voice of Olga Ramos, for example, was common in the premises. The old Café Varela closed as such at the end of the fifties, but it has recently reopened its doors as a cafeteria and restaurant, with that mixture of memories, of old and modern flavor, with which to delight the customers who cross its entrance