Pavilhão Chinês in a Watercolor of a Lisbon Bar
2024-04-19
I love bars. I love bars with a different kind of style, the ones that aren’t exactly trendy, and definitely not the currently fashionable spots either. What matters most to me in a bar is the quality of the drink and how welcome you feel there.
With that in mind, one day we ended up going to Lisbon to meet up with a former coworker who’d come over from Brazil. We spent a wonderful afternoon at a place I’d been really curious to check out, Pavilhão Chinês. And it was everything we’d hoped for, good drinks, well made without too much fuss, at a fair price, and the place itself was great.
I guess you could call it kitsch, maybe, but besides a few good hours of conversation and easy laughter, it also gave me this watercolor of one of the lamps on the tables.
About Pavilhão Chinês
Pavilhão Chinês opened its doors in 1986, in what used to be an early 20th century grocery store, in Príncipe Real. To get in, you have to ring the bell on the red door, a small ritual that’s already part of the experience. Inside, its rooms hold a huge collection of curiosities, from lead soldiers to military pieces, almost like the bar is also a tiny museum.
It was there, surrounded by all that history on the walls, that we spent hours talking, laughing, and drinking well. Whenever we get the chance, we’ll head back and finally try the snooker tables, with more friends who are never in short supply for good places and good moments like this one.