Salón Málaga is by far the coolest place to visit in Medellín. It
doesn’t just offer a number of billiard tables, it’s also playing the
finest of the finest traditional music like porro, tango and cumbia,
serves an excellent coffee and looks absolutely stunning.
Málaga, located at the foot of the center’s main metro station San Antonio, has a 50-year-long history and a lot of pride.
The bar / billiards hall / dance school is large and has a relatively aged group of music lovers as regulars. They dance, listen to the music they’ve listened to since the 1950’s. They get drunk or read their literature. Hardly ever a gringo sets foot in what undoubtedly is the pearl of Medellín’s urban tradition.
A number of grammaphones and ancient jukeboxes show how the saloon has no interest in ever playing modern music. The hundreds of pictures on the wall of Latin American artists and the city before the construction of Coltejer does neither.
This place is showing and breathing Medellín’s past. before there was hip hop, before there was reggaeton, before there was salsa even.
Salón Málaga is best visited on weekend afternoons when the old people come out to dance.
Salón Málaga
Carrera 51 (Bolivar) #45-80
Website Salón Malaga