Another Café in Porto? You Bet! Café a Brasileira

Another Café in Porto?  You Bet!  Café a Brasileira

Porto is full of the quaint, the old and the wonderful. Architectural wonders abound.  Walk down any street and feast your eyes on what a city should look like. Many of those stone marvels are hotels and cafés, left over from the gilded age when the upper crust did not eat, they dined.  One of the best is the Café a Brasileira, dating from 1903, but recently refurbished with all attention to every historic detail, with the columns, the fixtures, the walls and colors, all matching the originals.

You might say, even the coffee is original, coming from a farm in Brazil, only 150 kilometers (about 90 miles) from where the pharmacist, Adriano Telles, first served coffee by the cup, although these days, every café in Europe and America and even Japan survives by being a slave to lattes and such.  Café a Brasileira is no exception. So never fear, you faint of hearts who don’t really like coffee, but love the idea of having your java doctored to match your beach tan, nothing to fear at this café.

 But, for those brave souls who are no slave to the latest trend in coffee-juice, and I proudly count myself in that number, forgo the silly frills and tell the very attentive waiter you’d like a snifter of Jameson Irish to go with your morning cup of rich brew.  Sure, you may have to suffer the mild rebuke of your significant other, or you may be surprised to see her lightly lick her lips, wink, and whisper, “I’d like a sip….if you know what I mean.”  Be sure to hold the snifter in both your shaking hands as her perfect lips daintily touch the rim.  Stand ready to applaud if she turns to the waiter and demurely asks him to bring one for herself. Oh, be still my pants heart!

But, more than just a place to sip a cup, the café is a great place to watch the world go by, sample the justly famous Pastel de Nata (custard Tart), and make yourself feel like the masterly traveler that you are.

Porto is a place that makes you feel like dressing for breakfast and taking a leisurely stroll into a bygone era.  Café a Brasileira.  Don’t forget the name. I guarantee you won’t forget the experience.

University Student in her black robe

One of the very attentive waiters

A chair back

Majestic Café in Porto, Portugal

Busiest times are breakfast and lunch

Majestic Café in Porto, Portugal

If you want to really be a traveller, you have to stay in one place long enough to find three things:  the perfect Café, the perfect bar, and the local market.  Staying only an afternoon and jumping through the ten hoops the guidebooks insist on doesn’t make you a traveler, it makes you a headless vector.

I’ve already written about Porto’s wonderful market and the magnificent Intercontinental Hotel Bar.  Now it’s time to introduce you to one or two sensational cafés that date back to when your parents were young and frisky, or maybe even your grandparents.  You don’t find these places much in the U.S., but in European cities, just ask around and they’ll quickly pop out of a native’s smiling lips, usually beginning with “You’ve got to…” The Majestic Café is like that.  A step back into the time of ornate fixtures, artists and writers who linger over a morning coffee in scintillating conversation, and such a comfortable setting that you are suddenly uplifted, inspired, and feel the urgency to learn several languages, read classic novels and view some canvases done by the masters.

The famous French Toast

Would you like whipped cream with your milk coffee?

Think I’m being factious?  Let me put it this way, so both of my faithful readers will comprehend:  Take your camera, but also take a small notebook and pen and become a momentary scribe over a delicious coffee and the café’s famous French toast.  Or if you should choose to flatter yourself and assume your best E. Hemingway, forgo the French toast and order a brandy or Jameson.  Yes, I did.  No, I am not ashamed.

So, you’re asking: For the love of heaven, please tell me more about the café! Don’t allow me to simply sit there and luxuriate in the splendor of the moment.

No fear, my fellow travelers, here’s the More you request:

But, before I begin, a sip of Jameson.  Ah, now, here we go. 

The Elite Café opened on 17 December 1921 and was an immediate success, with it’s Art Nouveau architecture and interior design.  Leather seating. Flemish mirrors. Ornate plaster details on the walls and ceilings.  In short, a perfect place for gentlemen and ladies to stop for a conversation over ice cream, or coffee, or an aperitif.  But, something about the name didn’t sit well with some.  Elite.  Monarchists in a time of Republican sentiments?  Hence the name-change to the still elegant, but more egalitarian Majestic Café.

Over the years this sumptuous setting on a busy shopping street has garnered multitudinous awards.  You will quickly see for yourself why this café often appears on the “Best Ten Cafes in the World” list.

Although it has certainly become a tourist destination, with a long line to get in, the café has not lost its way.  The food and service are remarkable.  And, should you wish to arrange a celebratory event, this is the place.  Many have, including heads of state, as well as an array of notables from entertainers to aviators, to artists and writers.  It’s said that J.K. Rowling finished writing the first book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone here. (Published in the U.S. as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.)

But, no matter if you’re stoned by Philosophers or Sorcerers, or Colorado’s new state flower, when you step in and have a seat in this paradise of a café and the first white and black clad waiter comes to your table, you’ll be more than glad you came, not to see the sight or follow the instruction of a guide book, but to add your approval to all of those who have made this spot in Porto THE place.

Now grab your notebook and pen and finish this story:  It was at exactly noon on the 24^th of May in 1925, the heart of the Jazz Age, when I finished my first cup of coffee, ignoring the many hums of conversation around me, seated near a wall sized mirror in the apply named Majestic Café, when a young woman and her mother took the table beside me.  “What calls to you, Cynthia?” asked the older woman as they both reviewed the menu and the black and white liveried waiter waited patiently.  Actually, the waiter and I both waited to hear the young voice and find out this delectable creature’s desire.

The Majestic Café!  More than a destination, much more than a mere coffee shop, it’s an adventure in time travel you won’t want to miss.

Don't forget the famous Porto Pastéis de Nata, Portuguese Custard Tarts