Bar Vesúvio

Bar Vesúvio is the most famous landmark in the Bloco Jorge Amado, restored to something close to its early-20th-century appearance and preserved as part of the Jorge Amado Heritage Circuit. The bar appears prominently in Gabriela, Cravo e Canela (1958), Amado's most commercially successful novel, which was set in Ilhéus during the 1920s cacao boom.

You can eat and drink here — the food is straightforward Bahian, heavy on moqueca and grilled fish. The historic setting is the main draw, but it is a functioning bar and restaurant, not a pure museum piece. Sit outside on the terrace and watch the square.

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A story
In *Gabriela, Cravo e Canela*, the Bar Vesúvio is where Nacib the Syrian barman meets Gabriela, the mulatto woman with skin the colour of cinnamon and eyes the colour of an olive. The bar became famous before Amado's novel did — when the book was published in 1958 it already had three decades of history behind it.

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