Café da Dança/Mezzanine (2)

You can find the first post about this place here.

 

This time I arrived with the idea of eating something cooked for lunch. I arrived at 13h because I knew this was the cooking lady arrival time. Bring the chicken salad! With egg! All boiled! But wait... No pasta?

I found this place's biggest flaw: there is always something missing. Always some kind of problem that forbids us to take our order until the end. But I am confident that one day I will manage to ask and get everything I want! Anyway, the only thing I can't stand is arrogance, other than that, it is useless to be mad at something like this, we just adapt.

In the end the salad was amazing and had a lot of different ingredients. In the middle of the meal I got to see my napkin carried away by the unscrupulous wind. I waved him goodbye while I search my pockets for any type of tissue: out of luck. My salad leaves also started to fly, light food (in the literal sense) is quite dangerous in this conditions.

The goiaba (guava) juice I asked for was one of the best juices I had in a long time. Perfect! For 1.80€ it felt good to contradict my usual coffee with milk.

Outside space pictures ended up worse than I expected but I thought that it would still be nice to show them. Don't be chocked by the plastic chairs, the great food and the sun compensate everything!

All this aversion to complaining reminded me of a video, just enjoy the nice things, because Everything is Amazing and Nobody is Happy.

Open from 11h to midnight.

Casual Lounge

I just added "lounges" category to my vines, although I am not quite sure of how to apply it, according to the dictionary:

lounge |lounj|
verb
lie, sit, or stand in a relaxed or lazy way : several students were lounging about reading papers.
noun
1. a public room, as in a hotel, theater, or club, in which to sit and relax.
• a spacious area in an airport with seats for waiting passengers : the departure lounge.
• short for cocktail lounge.
2. a couch or sofa, esp. a backless one having a headrest at one end.

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Musicwise, this place's selections ranged through the oldies, from Cindy's Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Depeche Mode's Just Can't Get Enough and Footloose from Kenny Loggins, that don't seem to fit in the ambient sound category. At least for me it is impossible to hear this songs without a taping foot or some arms swinging to the sides.

Casual Lounge has amazing schedules and free internet. It is a great place to plunge deep into college work while having a cocktail. The only problem is its prices (even more expensive after 20h). I usually have a Martini Rosso for 3€. It is one of the cheapest, as the other drinks are around 5 or 6€ each. I got the Martini vice from a Sumer festival and every time I drink it I can't avoid thinking about this. I thought this series of advertisements was genius, from the times I still watched tv.

Toasts are reasonable sized and its prices range form 2 to 4 euros. Other great possibilities are the combined menus of buttered scones and tea for 2€. Of course I also ask the famous galão in this place, it costs me a bit to see 2€ fly away but... It's coffee.

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The lounge also suffers from Starbucks syndrome: sometimes there is a couple in a humongous sofa. And when there is a couple around, no one stays less than 2 meters away.

Either ways, the lounge concept applies perfectly here in terms of atmosphere. The dimmed lights reflect in the mirror wall to add dimension and illuminate with less waste of electricity taking profit of the interior architecture.

The people are nice but not the most communicative, some times they didn't even know what was on the menu, but I rather have that than faces of despise.

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Mondays to Saturdays from 16h to 2h, Sundays from 16h to midnight.

Belém Starbucks

Everyone knows this place. What secrets can I have to surprise you? Anyway, here is what I think of good ol' Starbucks:

- Prices are... Too damn high!
- They don't sell coffee but mousse, addicting mousse.
- The muffins have an acceptable price for the size (1.90€), and they definitely contain drugs inside.
- I tried the cinammon roll once (too much cartoon made me want to try this). I had never try it before but I can assure it is not one of the best ones.
- Bathroom code is #1234, in all the stores.
- It is a great space to sit and talk, but they only give us 45 minutes of internet in every food we order. And you need to remind them to give you the password (which is not as predictable as the WC password).
- On the other hand that keeps me away from facebook which is good.
- If you don't want to pay and just want to talk, you just have to chose a table and sit down. Just in case, grab a used cup from another table and put it in yours, so that they think you consumed them.
- The cozy sofas large enough for a big group are usually occupied by 2 people looking at each other looking bored. The secret is to sit close enough and just shotgun it when they leave. be careful not to mistake a simple sleepy stretching with the "leaving signs", that may end up badly.
- Favorite activity nº1: make up your own alter ego name for the coffee orders lady.
- Stealing a Starbucks mug in not that difficult if you have a small backpack or a Doraemon magic pocket.
- Some painting are interesting.
- The Starbucks of Belém closes too soon (00:00) a nice option is heading to the Casual Lounge nearby.

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Everyday from 8h to midnight.

Grémio do Carmo (closed)

"Grémio" means something like a communion or association, it is entered quite secretly through a stamp shop on Carmo street or a Merrel shoe store on Ouro street.

A lot of nice stuff makes up the decoration of this hidden gem: toys, a chalk board, a black sofa, some do-it-yourself type chairs, a pony swing, a bicycle, a library, and a long table with compartments for oils and condiments, the type that invites people to have a conversation with random strangers.

Some of the things here are old material from the bookstore in Carmo that close recently. From books, to furniture, to label tags with weird categories like "liver diseases" or "therapeutic". I like the irony of it. There are some more interesting details, the flasks for condiments, the boxes that serve as book shelves, the lights, the wall decoration. It is a tiny place, but still it manages to have 3 separate areas at once.

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A smoked salmon sandwich costs 3€ and it always comes with a water jug (it is a very nice but also useful detail). In the menu was some unseen stuff (for me): filter coffee, ginger beer, sparkling juices, I want to try everything.

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Open from mondays to saturdays, from 10h to 20h. Closes on sundays.

Garden of Belém

A walk through Belém is one of the best things you can do in sunny days after a meal. There is a new "monument" we recently acquired, a gift from Thailand called Thai Room. Well, it is full of good intentions but I personally think its out of context. A big red thing in the middle of the green gardens pops out, I mean, maybe they could have placed it somewhere else more thoughtfully.

The gardens are open everyday of course! Feel free to walk around, have a picnic, play sports or card games, take pictures, play rings of fire responsibly.

Careca

I started in this place as a kid. I always associate it with mothers taking a coffee and croissant with their girl friends while the kids play hopscotch and other games in the patium... The croissants are what the house is famous for. They are small and glazed with sugar that then hardens making them very crunchy. When I was little I used to eat something called Hungarian Biscuits, they are round and yellow, and half of them is dipped in chocolate. Some get strawberry jam inside, but I never enjoyed fruit mixed with chocolate.

Eating outside is good with sunny weather but when the shadow comes and the cold takes over you have to make a big decision: either you endure it and eat peacefully or you have to prepare your ears for kids screaming inside. Which one would you choose?

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Each croissant costs 1.20€. They are not stuffy, you can easily eat one more if you have a sweet tooth. And just so you know, "Careca" means bald. I don't know the point, but maybe the owner took a step in accepting he was getting older.

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Open everyday except tuesday from 8h to 20h.

Wanli (2)

One needs to return when XVIII cakes are mentioned. I had a ham and brie toast: skinny, crunchy, creamy and full of oregano. They are not very feeling but good for a light lunch. A second dose was proposed to us for free if we still felt hungry, but instead we asked for dessert: an orange cake and a chocolate and ginger cake, dividing it between the two of us (that good old technique of the gluttons).

The orange one is really amazing, with two different textures. The chocolate cake is good but very heavy, even when split it felt it was hitting us like a rock. Like a dark chocolate mousse in cake format. This is the ideal cake for chocolate lovers.

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We paid 8€ each in the end, which made me think that the cakes are a bit expensive. But still everything is totally worth it and I hope more places like this start to open as soon as possible. I kind of feel special, it is like personal treatment.

I noticed that when no one is around to serve, the owner just sits outside in the sun, smoking his cigar peacefully, staring at passerbys.

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Open form monday to saturday, from 10h to midnight.