Bars & Cafes Bar listings New in town Jazz B How to use the listings This section lists our pick of São Paulo’s bars, updated to include new spots and rotate in other favourites. For each bar, we give the cost of a beer and a caipirinha, a cover charge or a minimum spend at the bar if applicable. Note that a cover charge sometimes includes credit at the bar. Unless marked ‘No credit cards’, all these establishments accept major credit cards.
Tubaína Decorated with celebrity posters from the ’80s, Tubaína mixes up tasty regional cocktails like the Cosmopolitan do Agreste – a passion-fruit, strawberry, chilli and cachaça creation. It also offers more than twenty types of Tubaína – a brand of soft drinks, made in inland São Paulo state. Following the caipira (rural) theme, traditional country dishes like pamonha (creamed corn) aren’t bad either. Rua Haddock Lobo 74, Consolação (3129 4930/tubainabar.com.br). Open 6pm-1am Mon-Thu; 6pm-3am Sat, Sun. Prices chope R$6.50; caipirinha R$14; cover R$0-$4.
NEW means the bar has opened in the last few months. is for highly recommended. means the bar is popular with a gay crowd. means the menu has full meal options. is for regular live music. signals free Wi-Fi for customers.
Rose Velt Taking its name from Praça Roosevelt – the recently remodelled square opposite – Rose Velt has become a hangout for students, actors and creative types. Not surprisingly, given its location next to the intimate Espaço Parlapatões theatre. Inside, dim lights and other interesting decor details include a street surface recreated along one wall, complete with chunks of pavement and manhole covers, lending a trash-chic edge. Go on Wednesday nights for live music or any night to sample one of more than 120 types of cachaça, served straight up or in a caipirinha – we love the perfectly spiced chilli one. Praça Franklin Delano Roosevelt 124b, Consolação (3129 5498/ rosevelt.com.br). Open 7pm-12.30am Tue; 6.30pm-12.30am Wed, Thu; 7pm-2.30am Fri; 8pm-2.30am Sat; 7-11.30pm Sun. Prices small bottle beer R$6; caipirinha R$13.
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Centro, Luz & Bom Retiro Bar da Dona Onça Don’t be misled by the ‘bar’ in the name – this classic Centro destination is as much restaurant as watering hole, and its extensive menu, including pasta and meat dishes, draws crowds for both lunch and dinner. It’s well worth a visit even if it’s only to suss out the location, tucked in on the ground floor of Niemeyer’s iconic Copan building, and within walking distance of many of the city’s historic sights. Inside, leopard-print decor and wood panelling lend a cosy charm. Don’t miss the cashew caipiroska – vodka with a housemade cashew compote. Rua Ipiranga 200, loja 2729, Centro (3257 2016/bardadonaonca.com.br). Metrô 3, República. Open noon-11pm Mon-Wed; noon-midnight Thu-Sat; noon-5pm Sun. Prices small bottle beer R$7, caipirinha R$18.
Suíte Savalas It’s a curious facet of modern life that anything from the ’70s is cool. Especially if it was on TV. Cashing in on that trend, the name of Greek-American actor Aristotelis ‘Telly’ Savalas, best known for starring in the ’70s crime drama Kojak, is the moniker of choice of this bar. Cinematic references aside, what Suíte Savalas is really all about is being a New York-style, no-nonsense bar. The low red lights and clean-without-being-pristine interior fill up with a young, agreeably mixed bunch of customers. We like. Rua Mato Grosso 398, Consolação (3259 4355). Open 9pm-3am Wed-Sat. Prices small bottle beer R$6.50; caipirinha R$15; cover R$15.
Lapa, Perdizes & Barra Funda Get a taste of SP’s jazz scene at the new Jazz B. Opened where Bar B once stood, it’s a little sister to the well established Jazz nos Fundos, famously set in a Pinheiros parking lot. An intimate setting for live music at night, Jazz B is currently only open Saturday nights, with a more extensive programme, we hear, coming soon. Read more at j.mp/jazzb. Rua General Jardim 43, Vila Buarque (3083 5975/facebook.com/club.JazzB). Open 8pm-2.30am Sat. Prices chope R$6-$10; caipirinha R$14; couvert R$25.
Consolação & Higienópolis Drosophyla With a chaotically colourful decor – a style they call ‘contemporary baroque’, but which might be better described as ‘eccentric artist’s upmarket squat’ – this bar is popular with a slightly older, more bohemian crowd. From the outside, it’s just a quiet doorway on a gloomy street. But inside, the main event is a leafy, warmly illuminated garden. Rua Pedro Taques 80, Consolação (3120 5535/ drosophyla.com.br). Metrô 4, Paulista. Open 7pm-2am Mon-Wed; 8pm-2am Thu; 8pm-3am Fri, Sat. Prices small bottle beer R$7; caipirinha R$13; minimum spend R$20-$40.
Kabul Tucked away in a two-storey house-turned-bar on a side street just off traffic-choked Rua da Consolação, Kabul offers a mixed bag of soulful musical styles to match its mixed drinks. Patrons sit in various earthtoned parlours decorated with abstract panels and paintings by local artists, while the bartenders hustle together orders of strawberry, kiwi or pineapple caipirinhas destined for tables full of twenty-something hipsters. There’s often standingroom only for the jammin’ live samba, soul and rock shows. Rua Pedro Taques 124, Consolação (2503 2810/ kabul.com.br). Metrô 4, Paulista. Open 9pm-late Tue-Sat. Prices 600ml beer R$7.98; caipirinha R$14.95; cover R$10$20.
Dona Felicidade Vila Romana, near Perdizes, is off the central São Paulo beaten track, but regulars of this friendly, down-home establishment say Dona Felicidade (‘Mrs Happiness’) is worth the trek for the milk pudding with coconut (R$8) she serves. The lady herself declares it will make you faint; but diehard clubbers swear by its restorative powers after a heavy night out. Rua Tito 21, Vila Romana (3864 3866/donafelicidade. com.br). Open 11.30am-1am TueFri; 11.30am-8pm Sat, public holidays; 11.30am-6pm Sun. Prices chope R$6; caipirinha R$12. Lebowski This cosy Barra Funda bar crams in as many references to the 1998 Coen brothers movie, The Big Lebowski, as possible, from bowling-pin lights to an alley-styled bar counter, and most important of all, a menu dedicated to the white russian. Those who aren’t partial to The Dude’s milky-coffee cocktail of choice can pick from a solid selection of other vodka-based drinks, and even some vodka-based twists on other classics. Take ten steps into this bar and you’ll have already scoped out the entire space. But while it may be small, there’s still room for a tiny, darkened dancefloor, where DJs spin a loud post-hipster soundtrack from the back of the house. Rua Barra Funda 1070, Barra Funda (lebowskisp.com.br). Open 11pm-5am Fri, Sat. Prices small bottle beer R$7,50; caipiroska R$16. No credit cards.
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