I was in Galicia at a top restaurant (Casa Solla) on a Saturday night. We showed up at 9 for our reservation time and the lights were off. Pepe Solla himself drives up and says we are parked in his spot. He graciously pours us a vermut and we sit by the fire until 10 when our meal starts. People roll in until 12am. We finish at 3 and people are stil halfway through their course. We got back to our hotel at 4am, my guess is most diners were just finishing up.
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Great story! And that was a very long sobremesa!
Weddings here are very much like that, ending in the wee hours just before dawn.
I never understood how they do it. Eat at 11pm, party till 3am… while I understand about the siesta, when does the workday start in Spain? 10am? 11?
I couldn’t eat that late & be a functioning adult in the morning (not that I ever am, but that’s just me).
Drink vermut?
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The work day starts whenever the employee arrives! 
Seriously, it depends on the job.
There is no longer a “siesta”, at least among my group. They do have a long lunch break to rest but some don’t commute home (too time consuming in the traffic) and use that time to eat out or even having a “táper” (Tupperware dish) at their desk, or to run errands, to shop at ECI, or whatever, but sleeping a siesta, no.
In the summer, starting July 15, some companies go to the jornada continua e intensive, without a long mid-day lunch break, starting at 7 am and ending at 3 or 4 pm, depending. This is due to the intense heat.
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Quite likely alcohol was in the mix… 
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Instead of a new thread I’ll offer this here. Dinner last night at La Monteria was excellent.
Tuna belly grilled with an excellent crust but still raw in the center. Wild boar cheeks stew. An estofado of young quail. Venison loin with foie and red wine sauce. For game and seafood/fish done very well, hard to beat at these prices. Total food cost was 73. Each plate is only half of the full portion (that they divided for us).
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One of my very favorites in the Retiro.
