Botellóns, Malls & Town Square Culture

Europe's tradition of drinking in the street is the great equalizer in local communities

Jun 11, 2022

Cafe Society is Maxwell Social’s Whenever-I-Have-The-Time-To-Write magazine on the intersection of community, society, web3, F&B and more — an anthropological look at the underpinnings of what makes the world tick and how tech is changing it, written by David Litwak (@dlitwak) and the Maxwell team. Maxwell is building a new type of social club in Tribeca, check out the photos on Instagram, if you’d like to apply go to www.maxwellsocial.com and if you’d like to book an event get in touch here.

I'm in Milan right now for the Salone Del Mobile, one of the world's biggest furniture conferences, meeting our build out partners for Maxwell Tribeca. Last night was the first night I didn't have any events so I decided to spend it strolling around Milan and checking out a few of the less touristy neighborhoods.

Now this is far from my first time in Europe but a two year pandemic made me forget how much of European social life is on the streets — every few blocks I'd come across a town square with a restaurant or little bar on the corner and a hundred or so young people out into the square drinking, sitting on bike racks and fountain-side. In the areas where there were lots of space the music was playing louder but when it was close to residences people were considerate.

I even walked past a group heading a soccer ball while they drank in front of a church.

In Spain this kind of social gathering is called a Botellón — drinking in town squares or on street corners before heading out to the nightclub, and versions of it are widespread around Europe. I was struck with how you never see this in America — we have no shared nighttime social spaces, and as we do most of our socialization at night, that means we have no public shared social spaces at all.

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