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The article states it was "Opened in 1905 by Adrian Telles" and names no month or day, so the pin takes that year's last day.[1]- Start
- Dec 31, 190575% CONFIDENCEen.wikipedia.org
A Brasileira Opens in the Chiado
Adriano Telles opened A Brasileira in 1905 to sell Brazilian coffee by the sack, gave cups away to persuade Lisbon to drink it, and ended up with the café that the city's writers colonised. Fernando Pessoa sits in bronze at a table outside it.
- Adriano Telles opened A Brasileira on 19 November 1905 at 120 Rua Garrett in Lisbon's Chiado, first as a shop selling genuine Brazilian coffee from Minas Gerais, and offered a free cup with each purchase of ground coffee.[1]
- Telles had emigrated to Brazil at 12 and made his fortune in coffee; his first Brazileira was in Porto in 1903, and the Lisbon one took over a former shirt-maker's shop.[2]
- A 1908 remodelling by the architect Manuel Joaquim Norte Júnior turned the ground floor into a coffee house selling coffee by the cup, a novelty at the time; Lojas com História says coffee was then served free for 13 years.[1][2]
- Wikipedia says it was the first shop to sell the bica, a small strong coffee like espresso; a 1922 renovation by José Pacheco added the green-and-gold entrance and an interior of mirrored walls and brass fittings.[1]
- In the 1920s it became a gathering place for Lisbon's intellectuals, with Fernando Pessoa the most famous regular; Norberto de Araújo encouraged modernist painters, including Almada Negreiros, Eduardo Viana and Jorge Barradas, to decorate the walls from 1925.[1][2]
- Those paintings were controversial at first and are now highly valued, so the café worked as an informal gallery for the Portuguese modernists.[1][2]
- The bronze Pessoa at a table beside the terrace is by Lagoa Henriques and was installed in 1988; the café was updated again in the 1970s and 1990s and still holds artistic salons.[1][2]