Meka

About this place Meka

Meka in the Ensanche district represents Bilbao's gay scene moving out of the Casco Viejo and into the nineteenth-century grid city that makes up the modern commercial centre of Bilbao. The Ensanche — like the Eixample in Barcelona — was planned in the 1800s as an expansion beyond the medieval walls, and its wider streets and larger buildings give it a different character from the intimate lanes of the Siete Calles. Meka occupies this setting with a bar that is more modern in aesthetic than the Casco Viejo options: cleaner lines, a cocktail focus, and a crowd that tends toward professionals from the Ensanche neighbourhood rather than the more mixed social composition of the old-town bars. The bar serves a useful function for visitors staying in the Ensanche or near the Guggenheim — it provides a gay-friendly social option without requiring the journey to the Casco Viejo, while remaining close enough to the museum and the riverfront cultural corridor that it can be incorporated into an afternoon or evening that also takes in Bilbao's contemporary architecture.