Casa Morales, Seville — claims 1850

The claim

A bodega beside Seville cathedral, trading under the fascia Hijos de E. Morales and known to everyone as Casa Morales. Two rooms with separate doors join behind the bar; the back one keeps the tall clay tinajas that once held the wine, with the day's tapas and drinks chalked on them. Wine came from the family's Valdepeñas bodegas from 1850, and nothing was cooked here until about 2000.

What the records show

The 1850 is the house's own — "fundada en 1.850" on its website — and Seville publishers repeat it without a document behind it. They name the founder as Leocadio Morales Prieto, who already owned bodegas in Valdepeñas and opened this one to sell their wine in Seville; no licence, deed or directory entry was traced, so the year is a claim. What those accounts also make clear is what the year dates. The business began as a despacho de vinos a granel, a shop selling wine in bulk, and drinking on the premises began only gradually afterwards; food is much later still, from about 2000, when Reyes Morales, the founder's great-granddaughter, put Sevillian tapas on. Because no year has been traced for the point at which the counter became the trade, the house is published with a page and a pin and left out of the ranking. It is plainly a drinking house now: the fascia still reads Hijos de E. Morales, which is the name under which OpenStreetMap records a bar at this doorway, and Time Out describes the day's tapas and drinks chalked on the tinajas in the back room, the tall clay jars the wine was once kept in.

What to look for inside

Fascia still reads Hijos de E. Morales
Tall clay tinajas kept in the back room, used as the menu board
In the same family for four generations

Visiting

Casa Morales is in Seville, Spain, at Calle García de Vinuesa 11, 41001 Sevilla. We do not list opening times, because they change; the pub’s own site is the place to check before you set out.

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