Two More Bars in Porto

Before visiting a town or city, I always look on the internet for interesting bars and breweries. During a visit, I’m always on the lookout for them as well. It’s something I’ve been doing since discovering real ale back in the early seventies. I just love a really good bar, as does my wife. Our visit to Porto back in 2017 was no exception.

I found a number of interesting breweries before going. Unfortunately, we only managed to get to one, A Fábrica. It’s still there and is well worth a visit. It looks like it’s hardly changed since our visit almost eight years ago.

My wife and I got the bus there (her Achilles Tendon was still hurting from being damaged in Essen). It’s also a pleasant walk from the centre. Make your way to the Avenida dos Aliados and follow it towards the city hall. The bar is on one of the streets off to the left of the avenue, just before city hall. It’s easy to find on open street map (a good alternative to Google or Bing maps as there are no markers on the map), it’s on Rua da Picaria.

I tried a few of their beers and they were all excellent. We drank on the terrace outside, though there’s lots of seating within. Within the brewery/bar you can see all the brewing equipment. They have other bars around the city; they’re all listed on their website. When we went it was very quiet as it had only just opened.

Just up the road from the brewery, was another interesting bar, Candelabro. We didn’t know about this one in advance, but it looked interesting, so we gave it a chance. It was superb, a bar with lots of bookshelves selling second handbooks (called an “altarrabista”). We browsed the books over a couple of glasses of wine. According to one website I’ve just read, they sell over sixty varieties of Portuguese wine. This blog post gives a good description of the bar, the writer says it’s one of his favourite bars to hang out in. My wife and I agree. It was a lucky find.

The photo above shows the outside of the bar.

Just round the corner was an excellent food emporium. It’s the one where I saw the Olive Oil on offer. The next day I came back to buy some, only to find out that it was light Olive Oil used for Mayo. A wasted journey.

The Avenida dos Aliados is very touristy, this area, off to the left is less so and is well worth a mooch around.