Portugal

complete meal. The dinner hour starts at 8pm, music begins at 9:15pm, and the doors
don’t close until 3am. It’s open Tuesday through Sunday. They accept Amex, Discover,
MasterCard, and Visa. Rua do Norte 91. & 21/322-46-40. www.adegamachado.web.pt. Cover
(including 2 drinks) 16€. Bus: 58 or 100.
Café Luso In a vaulted network of 17th-century stables, Luso is one of the most
famous and enduring fado clubs of the Bairro Alto. Despite a recent trend toward the
touristy, it still exerts a folkloric appeal, as it has since it was transformed into a restaurant
with music in the 1930s. The entertainment and regional food are presented most nights
to some 160 patrons. There are three shows nightly: 8:30 to 10:30pm for the first show,
10:30pm to 12:30am for the second show, and 12:30 to 2am for the third show. Amex,
Discover, MasterCard, and Visa are accepted here. Travessa da Queimada 10. & 21/342-22-
81. www.cafeluso.pt. Bus: 58 or 100.
Parreirinha da Alfama Every fadista worth her shawl seems to have sung at this
old-time cafe, just a minute’s walk from the docks of the Alfama. It’s fado-only here, not
folk dancing, and the place has survived more or less unchanged since its establishment
in the early 1950s. In the first part of the program, fadistas get the popular songs out of
the way and then settle into their more classic favorites. You can order a good regional
dinner, although many visitors opt to come here just to drink. It’s open daily from 8pm
to 1am; music begins at 9:30pm. The atmosphere is a lot more convivial after around
10:30pm, when local stars (who include such luminaries and divas as Lina Maria) have
warmed up the crowd a bit. They accept American Express, MasterCard, and Visa. Beco
do Espírito Santo 1. & 21/886-82-09. Cover (credited toward drinks) 15€. Bus: 9, 39, or 46.
Coffeehouses and Cafes
To the Portuguese, the coffeehouse is an institution, a democratic parlor where they can
drop in for their favorite libation, abandon their worries, relax, smoke, read the paper,
write a letter, or chat with friends about tomorrow’s football match.
The coffeehouse in Portugal, however, is now but a shade of its former self. The older
and more colorful places, filled with turn-of-the-20th-century charm, are rapidly yielding
to chrome and plastic.
One of the oldest surviving coffeehouses in Lisbon, A Brasileira , Rua Garrett 120
(& 21/346-95-41; Metro: Rossio), lies in the Chiado district. It has done virtually nothing
to change the opulent but faded Art Nouveau decor that has prevailed since it became
a fashionable rendezvous in 1905. Once a gathering place of Lisbon’s literati, it was the
favored social spot of the Portuguese poet Bocage of Setúbal, whose works are read by
high school students throughout Portugal. He was involved in an incident that has since
been elevated into Lisbon legend: When accosted by a bandit who asked him where he
was going, he is said to have replied, “I am going to the Brasileira, but if you shoot me I
am going to another world.” Patrons sit at small tables on chairs made of tooled leather,
amid mirrored walls and marble pilasters. A statue of the great Portuguese poet Fernando
Pessoa sits on a chair amid the customers. At a table, sandwiches run 2.50€ to 3.10€,
pastries are 1.25€ to 2.50€, a demitasse costs 1€ to 2€, and bottled beer goes for 1.75€
to 3€. Prices are a bit lower at the bar, but you’ll probably want to linger a while—we
recommend sitting down to recover from the congestion and heat. It’s open daily from
8am to midnight and accepts cash only.
Although lacking A Brasileira’s tradition and style, the Pastelaria Suiça, on the south
corner of Praça de Rossio 96, in the Baixa (& 21/321-40-90; www.casasuica.pt; Metro:
155
EXPLORING LISBON 6
LISBON AFTER DARK