A Brasileira do Chiado

A hundred years old, it has seen many lively gatherings and a variety of people pass through. It is now preserved as a literary treasure, as it once served as a meeting place for the giants of Portuguese culture. In A Brasileira do Chiado, journeys back in time are flavoured with coffee and custard tarts, a combination that time can’t break. Savour the season in Chiado’s vibrant heart, in a corner of one of the city’s oldest cafés. 
We’re greeted by the statue of Fernando Pessoa, the first customer in the morning and the last at night. Unlike the poet, we sit inside, as the terrace is packed at nine in the morning. Perhaps this is the ideal time to examine the pastry display cabinet, which stretches the length of the café, enticing passers-by with its cluster of custard tarts and other traditional sweets. We opt for the classic – coffee and custard tart – and while we are waiting, our senses seem to be sharpened. As if we could see from a higher plane, we see the staff moving around at a frenetic pace, trays in hand. The clattering of shoes on the floor is evidence of the morning’s commotion, and the laughter between ordinary dialogue and foreign conversations is loud, as is the unmistakable clink of coins falling into the till. 

Coffee with a traditional flavour

Those who visit the place for its culture can be identified by the sound of the camera going off. After all, Fernando Pessoa’s glasses are on display right here, along with replicas of his famous work Mensagem (Message). The architectural beauty may be another attraction, as the pompous Baroque style dominates the walls that hold the abstract paintings. At the back of the room is an age-old relic that acts as a clock and has been measuring the time of the life of A Brasileira endlessly. Wherever you look, there’s always a reference to the brand created by Adriano Telles, if only through the face of the friendly-looking old man who is the business logo. But all thoughts are dispelled when the table is served with a traditionally flavoured coffee, the result of a variety of beans that give the drink its body and aroma, which, for some, is on a gourmet level. With one hand on the cup and the other on the small chocolate that comes with it, it is time to look ahead and relive other memories. This place was once the «home» of great people, where Pessoa accompanied his poems with a ginjinha, Amália sipped her steaming tea and Almada Negreiros delivered the Anti-Dantas Manifesto for the first time. Once the coffee is finished, it won’t be the future that we’ll see in the grounds, but the marks of a past that can be felt in every nook and cranny, perpetuating itself in the reminiscences of history.