Time Out London Issue 2128 Complete PDF - Flavializ.com

Travel
Edited by
Chris Moss
twitter.com/timeouttravel
Sleepless in
São Paulo
Long ignored by beach-bound tourists, Brazil’s
economic capital is fast, festive and fun. Ernest White II
selects his highlights for a hedonistic stopover
t once the biggest city in Brazil
and the biggest city in South AAmerica,
São Paulo is all about
superlatives. The city’s traffic might
be the worst and its commuters may
have reached critical mass years
ago, but the delicious abundance of
restaurants, the cultural diversity of
the population and the hedonistic
intensity of its nightlife remain
unsurpassed on the continent. São
Paulo is the engine driving Brazil’s
economic boom, and the evidence is
everywhere – from ramshackle
communities of jobseekers on the
outskirts to swanky penthouses, new
art galleries and plush play spaces.
All the conflicting energies of the
place can be summed up in one
word: exhilarating.
38www.timeout.com/travel June 2 – 8 2011
Around Town
Gritty and bustling, Centro – the old
downtown area – mixes nineteenthcentury
European architecture with
Latin American hustle. Packed with
peddlers of kitsch and tat, shopping
street Rua 25 de Março remains
a tackily entertaining place to
experience the city’s street life,
though the area can get sketchy at
night. Just south of Centro is
Liberdade, São Paulo’s Japantown,
rife with kanji and kana signage,
Asian cuisine, sundry doodads for
sale and a festive atmosphere at the
main plaza’s weekly market.
For a splash of cool green in the
midst of the urban canyon of Avenida
Paulista, Parque Trianon offers
precious respite as the last remnant
of the original Mata Atlântica, the
coastal rainforest that’s been
decimated by development. For
the culturally inclined, São Paulo’s
splendid Museu Afro Brasil, located
in the expansive Parque do
Ibirapuera, has on display more than
4,000 impressive paintings,
photographs, costumes and
exhibitions related to the African
strands of history and culture in
Brazil and the Americas. And for
worshippers of the beautiful game,
the Museu do Futebol, in the city’s art
deco Pacaembu Stadium, is a treat.
Unlike in Rio, where the homes of
the poorest are always in view, São
Paulo’s favelas are less visible to the
casual visitor. Head out into the city’s
vast perifería on a tour with guide
Surreal
shopping
Jardins
shoe shop
Melissa
changes its
façade
every week
Flavia Liz di Paolo of the ‘Unique in
São Paulo’ tour company. She will
take you to Paraisópolis and into the
home of Estevão, whose oddly
beautiful house is made of teacups
and saucers, fragments of ceramic,
old telephones and thousands of
other bits and pieces, all embedded
into lattice-work walls.
Parque Trianon (officially Parque
Tenente Siqueira Campos),
Rua Peixoto Gomide 949 (+55 11
3289 2160).
Museu Afro Brasil, Parque do
Ibirapuera Portão 10 (+55 11 3320
8900/www.museuafrobrasil.org.br).
Museu do Futebol, Praça Charles
Miller 1 (+55 11 3663 3848/
www.museudofutebol.com.br).
Unique in São Paulo (+55 11 3032
2692/www.uniqueinsp.com).
Food & Drink
Eating out is a popular pastime in
São Paulo, as evidenced by the
abundance of chic restaurants, fullservice
bakeries, por quilo buffets,
corner snack bars and 24-hour
luncheonettes. Many eateries are
informal, community-centred social
spaces where friends and families
get together to chew the fat for hours,
especially at weekends. Pop in to a
boteco or lanchonete – one of the
innumerable casual diners around
town – and have a salgadinho
(assorted golden-fried goodness) or
a freshly made juice in one of a

hundred tropical flavours. Check the
selection box for our pick of the city’s
best dining options, but don’t forget
to visit the vast, animated Mercado
Municipal, home of what claims to be
the world’s biggest Mortadella
sandwich.
If you need a nip to
warm you up, downtown’s
Alberta #3 is rapidly
The party
runs24hours
between the
mega-clubs,
intimate
venues and
after-hours
spots
becoming a classic, with
its beatnik vibe, rock
soundtrack and images
of youthful Jagger and
Dylan watching over the
place. Over in the busy
entertainment district of
Vila Madalena, the
biggest stand-out is
Astor and its downstairs
companion, SubAstor.
Upstairs, Astor is a
vintage, high-ceilinged boteco or barrestaurant,
while SubAstor down
below, decked out in dramatic red and
black, does some of the best cocktails
in town – find a spot at the bar and
order up the delicious Aviation.
Mercado Municipal (aka Mercadão),
Rua da Cantareira 306 (+55 11
3313 1326/www.mercado
municipal.com.br).
Alberta #3, Avenida São Luis 272
(+55 11 3151 5299/
www.alberta3.com.br).
Astor/SubAstor, Rua Delfina 163
(+55 11 3815 1364/
www.subastor.com.br).
Clockwise
from top
left: The
Week;
Galeria
Baró;
Parque do
Ibirapuera;
skyline
Shopping & Style
The art of acquisition in the city is
concentrated in the hundreds of
shopping malls, called simply
‘shoppings’. Shopping Pátio
Higienópolis, in the ritzy, easily
accessible suburb of
Higienópolis,
combines pricy
Brazilian brands with
international names
in a multi-storey
edifice. Jardins’s
Rua Oscar Freire is
known as the Rodeo
Drive of São Paulo,
but it also boasts a
good collection of key
Brazilian brands within
walking distance of one
another – from shoe
emporium Melissa,
with its ever-changing storefront
exhibitions, to hip shop Surface to
Air and the flagship store of clothier
Skyland and Sea. Just a block away
from the latter, Rio-based Granado
Pharmácias concocts inexpensive
vintage-style soaps, lotions and oils
made from tropical ingredients like
brazil-nut and açaí.
Shopping Pátio Higienópolis,
Avenida Higienópolis 618
(+55 11 3823 2300/www.patio
higienopolis.com.br).
Melissa, Rua Oscar Freire 827
(+55 11 3083 3612/www.melissa.
com.br).
Skyland and Sea, Rua Oscar
Freire 678 (+55 11 3064 6633/
www.skylandandsea.com.br).
Surface to Air, Alameda Lorena
1985 (+55 11 3063 4206/
www.blog.surfacetoair.com.br)
Granado Pharmácias, Rua Haddock
Lobo 1353 (+55 11 3061 0891/
www.granado.com.br).
Art
São Paulo’s in a serious artistic
mood after having successfully
hosted another edition of the Bienal,
South America’s largest art fair.
Appreciators of painting and sculpture
can get their fill at the Museu de Arte
de São Paulo (MASP), a modern
glass edifice suspended beneath two
giant red upturned ‘U’s. Temporary
exhibitions of Brazilian artists share
floor space with biggies like Picasso
and Gainsborough. The Pinacoteca
do Estado is another striking building
and the home to work by Brazil’s
most important modernists.
For cutting-edge contemporary
art, Galeria Baró couldn’t get any
sharper. Housed in a large industrial
space, the gallery actively pursues
provocative, ambitious installations
by young artists. At the opposite end
of the size spectrum, intimate but
impressive Choque Cultural
dedicates itself to Brazilian urban
artists, from graffiti merchants
to skateboard designers and
printmakers, earnestly and stylishly
Inside
knowledge
Time Out São
Paulo editor
Claire Rigby’s
favourite food,
drink and culture
Eat Bottagallo This Itaim newcomer
is brilliant for tapas, including
stunning rustic potatoes with shards
of fried Parma ham and an orangeyolked
egg on top.
Rua Jesuíno Arruda 520, Itaim Bibi
(+55 11 3078 2858/
www.bottagallo.com.br).
Mocotó Both understated and wildly
hyped, this singular, out-of-the-way
restaurant has possibly the best
Brazilian food in São Paulo (pictured),
at prices that ought to make other
SP restaurateurs blush.
Avenida Nossa Senhora do Loreto
1100, Vila Medeiros (+55 11 2951
3056/www.mocoto.com.br).
Speranza In Bixiga, the Italian
neighbourhood per definizione,
Speranza does pizza the oldfashioned
way, with extraordinarily
good tomato sauce.
Rua 13 de Maio 1004 (+55 11
3288 8502/www.pizzaria.com.br).
Sushi Guen A wood-panelled time
capsule off high-rise Avenida
Paulista, this 35-year-old sushi joint
is inside a tiny shopping gallery.
Avenida Brigadeiro Luís Antônio
2367, Jardim Paulista (+55 11
3289 5566).
Drink Bar da DidaWith plastic,
candlelit tables set out on next
door’s parking lot, Dida’s bar is all
about unpretentious nighttime fun.
Rua Dr Melo Alves 98, Cerqueira
César (+5511 3088 7177/
www.bardadida.com.br).
Listen ‘Sampa nova’ A very cool
compilation of electronica hymns
befitting of twenty-first-century São
Paulo, featuring tracks by maverick
muso Tom Zé and the late –and
legendary –expat producer Suba.
See ‘Estomago’ –Marcos Jorge’s
2007 film analyses the the city’s
‘eat or be eaten’ culture.
Read ‘The Killer’ is a
thriller by Patricia Melo
about a small-time
hood’s rise to power in
São Paulo’s organised
crime circles.
June 2 – 8 2011 www.timeout.com/travel 39

fostering an appreciation for
street-level art.
MASP, Avenida Paulista 1578 (+55
11 3251 5644/www.masp.art.br).
Pinacoteca do Estado, Praça da Luz
(+55 11 3324 1000/
www.pinacoteca.org.br).
Galeria Baró, Rua Barra Funda 216
(+55 11 3666 6489/
www.barogaleria.com.br).
Choque Cultural, Rua João Moura
997 (+55 11 3061 4051/
www.choquecultural.com.br).
Gay & Lesbian
Having held Gay Pride parades
so big that the police force stopped
counting at 2.5 million paradegoers,
São Paulo is quite possibly the
gayest city in Latin America.
Neighbourhoods such as Jardins and
the area around Rua Frei Caneca are
home to gay-friendly restaurants,
bars, clubs and saunas, but venues
catering to lesbians, gays and
transsexuals dot half the city. For preclub
drinks and flirting, try neon-lit
Volt, which makes an art out of
mixing tropical libations. Farol
Madalena serves up a menu of tasty
Brazilian appetisers, beach-themed
drinks and live music, strictly for the
ladies. The shebang of the week,
however, is The Week, one of the
biggest clubs in Brazil and gay partyturned-international
brand, with
popular Saturday-night bashes and
monthly pool parties in São Paulo.
The club’s DJs and dancers
frequently go on the road, carrying
Brazilian – nay, Paulistano – flavour
40www.timeout.com/travel June 2 – 8 2011
to gays and lesbians in cities such as
London, Barcelona and Mexico City.
Volt, Rua Haddock Lobo 40 (+55 11
2936 4041/www.barvolt.com.br).
Farol Madalena, Rua Jericó 179
(+55 11 3032 6470/
www.farolmadalena.com.br).
The Week, Rua Guaicurus 324
(+55 11 3868 9944/www.the
week.com.br).
Music
The hottest samba spot in town,
Ó do Borogodó, hosts famous names
in the genre – from Gafiera Nacional
to Dona Inah – that get hips swinging
and feet stomping in the syncopated
haze of Brazil’s most famous rhythm.
The elegant Auditório Ibirapuera, one
of architect Oscar Niemeyer’s most
recent creations, presents a diverse
array of Brazilian and international
acts. Its most striking feature is the
retractable wall behind the stage,
offering audience members a
panorama of the park during selected
shows, and folk in the park
a glimpse inside.
One of the more
interesting music venues
in town is actually
a whole set of them:
the city’s excellent
collection of
SESCs,
a city-wide
chain of
non-profit
community
centres.
They offer
Arthouses
Clockwise:
Auditório
Ibirapuera;
SESC
Pompeia;
Pinacoteca
do Estado
athletic facilities, libraries, courses
and exhibitions, and an always
cheap, always solid line-up of
established and up-and-coming
musical acts. If you only go to one,
make it the stunning SESC Pompeia,
designed by architect Lina Bo Bardi,
who also created the MASP. But if
nothing on the schedule tickles your
fancy, for rock and pop, samba and
salsa, any genre, any night, head
to delightfully funky Rua Augusta.
The strip just north of Avenida
Paulista, dubbed ‘Baixo Augusta,’
bursts with bars, live music venues
and clubs for every type: punks,
models, trannies, rastas, preppies
and any other social group you can
think of. The performance space at
Studio SP rocks.
Ó do Borogodó, Rua Horácio Lane 21
(+55 11 3814 4087).
Auditório Ibirapuera, Parque do
Ibirapuera Portão 2 (+55 11 3629
1075/www.auditorioibirapuera.
com.br).
SESC, various locations (www.
sescsp.org.br).
Studio SP, Rua
Augusta 591 (+55 11
3129 7040/
www.studiosp.org).
Clubbing
Nightlife doesn’t
exist in São Paulo,
because the party
runs 24 hours;
between the megaclubs,
intimate
venues and after-
Get packing
Go British Airways has daily
flights to São Paulo from Heathrow.
Fares start from £919 return
including taxes, fees and charges
(0844 493 0787). TAM Airlines
offers a daily service between
Heathrow and São Paulo. In June,
returns start at £930 including
taxes (020 8741 2005). Flight
time is 11hr 30min.
www.ba.com
www.tamairlines.com
Stay For boutique luxury, go to
76-room, art-themed L’Hotel
Porto Bay (doubles from R$1,450
or £550). Budget options are
Pousada Dona Zilah(doubles
from R$212 or £80) and
Normandie Design Hotel
(doubles from R$199 or £75).
www.portobay.com,
www.zilah.com,
www.normandiedesignhotel.
com.br
Further information Time Out
São Paulo, which
launched last
November, is a
monthly magazine
in English; it is priced
at R$12.90 (£4.90)
and is available at newspaper
stands and bookshops – and is
distributed free in many of the
city’s best hotels. Time Out also
publishes a city guide to São
Paulo, available from our online
shop, priced £9.99 (£12.99 RRP)
at www.timeout.com/shop.
hours spots, it’s amazing anyone
gets any sleep. The hottest club is
D-Edge, a newly dolled-up place with
a spectral lighting scheme and a
constant line-up of heavy-hitting
electronic DJs like John Digweed
and Booka Shade. Hip hop heads
can get their fix at unassuming Clash
Club on Tuesday nights, where
trainers trump high heels and
serious dancers rule the roost at the
weekly ‘Chocolate’ party. If neither
of these fêtes wears you out, the
debauchery at Love Story doesn’t
even start until almost three in the
morning, when the hookers and gogo
dancers get together with night
owls, tourists and other random
partiers to unwind after work.
D-Edge, Alameda Olga 170
(+55 11 3667 8334/www.d-edge.
com.br).
Clash Club, Rua Barra Funda 969
(+55 11 3661 1500/www.clash
club.com.br).
Love Story, Rua Araújo 232 (+55 11
3231 3101/www.danceteria
lovestory.tur.br).