In the context of a Spain increasingly threatened by rural depopulation, the traditional village bar emerges as a form of public infrastructure, a concept developed by sociologist Javier Rueda in his essay Utopías de barra de bar, where he argues for a Law of Rural Public Houses that would treat these spaces with the same relevance as libraries, pharmacies or health centres, recognising them as vital social hubs, cultural archives and emotional shelters; rather than seeing the bar merely as a place for drinking, Rueda reframes it as a communal device, a facilitator of daily life and democratic dialogue, particularly in towns where banks, shops and even post offices have disappeared, leaving the bar as the last heartbeat of civic life, a place where the local rhythm is orchestrated, strangers are integrated, and loneliness is alleviated through informal support systems, thus, local councils offering accommodation in exchange for running a bar represent a viable policy model, countering economic disinterest with social regeneration, while also opening a space for inclusion and care, especially for women, migrants and LGTBI communities, often sidelined in traditional rural narratives; Rueda warns that although alcoholism and patriarchal dynamics exist, they are not inherent to the bar but reflect wider societal issues, and that, paradoxically, the communal nature of the bar offers more containment and oversight than isolated domestic consumption; in contrast, the urban bar has become a sanitised zone of consumption, stripped of its spontaneity and social fluidity, subordinated to capitalist efficiency and uniformity, therefore, saving the village bar is not an exercise in nostalgia but a call to reclaim collective life, proposing it as a democratic platform where imaginable futures are brewed over shared time and conversation