This historic Sevillano spot has been around since 1670, and it shows, in a good way. Making part of it’s home in a former general store, El Rinconcillo’s charming architecture contains a lively bar scene. This isn’t the kind of bar where people drink themselves under the table, although El Rinconcillo has surely seen it’s fair share of that, but a tapas bar where the social snacking culture of Andalusian Spain is as alive as ever.

The carta is full of traditional fare and the manner of ordering is chaotic to say the least. There are menus around the bar, but the locals who frequent this place seem to have their options committed to memory. Once you reach the wooden counter, decide what you want quickly because the bartenders who’ll serve you aren’t messing around. You see, at El Rinconcillo, they take what they do seriously, from carving paper thin slices of jamon to pouring you a glass of fino, everyone does their job with pride.

It’s not easy to find a table at El Rinconcillo but the Spanish have managing their bebidas and tapas without one down to an art. If you’re lucky, you’ll carve out a place for yourself along the bar or at one of the upright sherry barrels that freckle the space like buoys dotting an ever-fluctuating sea. Enjoying yourself here is all about being part of a living, breathing bit of Sevilla’s history; savor your tapas, have a drink or two, enjoy your company, then toss your napkins, assuming you used one, onto the floor and let the spirit of Andalucía wash over you.

The clientele in El Rinconcillo ranges from elderly Spanish cabelleros to well dressed women, perhaps stoping by after a morning mass, to the children who accompany them. The scene is a far cry from the gastrobars that have taken Sevilla by storm, but this is the kind of place that never goes out of style. Sevillanos embody the spirit of el tapeo more than any other people you’re likely to find and if Sevilla is the heart of tapas culture, el Rinconcillo is it’s soul.