Café A Brasileira

One of Lisbon's great historic cafés, open since 1905 on Rua Garrett in Chiado, associated above all with the poet Fernando Pessoa who was a regular customer. The bronze Pessoa on the terrace is one of the most photographed things in the city; the interior retains its art deco fittings — dark wood panelling, azulejo panels, high ceilings — and the atmosphere is still that of a proper Lisbon café rather than a tourist trap, although it is emphatically both.

A bica (espresso) at the standing counter costs less than at the terrace tables — the Portuguese way, and the authentic choice. The Brasileira's coffee is good; the cakes and pastries are standard café quality. Go for the atmosphere and the history, not for a culinary experience.

bars and cafes chiado bar
A story
The bronze statue of Fernando Pessoa outside the Brasileira's entrance was installed in 1988, eight decades after the poet was a regular. Pessoa spent most of his adult life in Lisbon, moving between rented rooms and spending his days in cafés writing in a dozen literary voices he called heteronyms — alternative identities with their own biographies, philosophies, and styles. He died in 1935 leaving a trunk of 25,000 unpublished manuscripts. Most of them remained unread for decades.

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