Gambrinus, in operation since 1936, is the type of restaurant with fully-suited wait staff, white tablecloths, signature plates, wood paneling on the walls and a menu that touches on items such as foie gras and crêpes Suzette. If you’ve ever eaten there, it’s likely that you sat in one of the elegant, warm dining rooms designed by Portuguese architect Maurício de Vasconcelos in 1964. But for generations of Lisbon diners, especially chefs and others in the hospitality industry, food writers and photographers, Gambrinus means one thing: its bar.
“The counter at Gambrinus has always been a place ‘to see and be seen,’” says André Magalhães, the chef-owner behind Taberna da Rua das Flores, and a nearly lifelong fan of the bar at Gambrinus. “As a teen I’d take girlfriends there and they’d be impressed by the waiter’s treatment. They’d think that I was a regular, but in fact the waiters hosted everyone with the same deference.”
It’s possible you walked past André’s favorite date spot without noticing it. Unless, of course, there was a line of people waiting for one of its 12 coveted stools. Yet if you had scored a seat, you would experience a space that seems to operate in something of a separate realm to that of the greater restaurant.
“We sell a lot of wine by the glass, but the majority of people drink beer,” says Carlos Serafim, an employee of Gambrinus for 25 years, the last four of those exclusively at the bar. In a restaurant where many are splurging on expensive bottles of wine, at the bar, it’s all about beer. Specifically, its signature drink, the Gambrinus.
“The Gambrinus is a mix, a blend of ‘white’ and dark beer,” Carlos tells us. “We go with twenty percent ‘white’ and eighty percent dark.” Served in a glass with Gambrinus etched in cursive on its surface, it’s classy, refreshing and unique. It’s also just one of several items at the bar at Gambrinus that exists in a semi-secret realm, one not disclosed on any menu.
Occupy a stool at Gambrinus’s bar, and without asking, you’ll be given a small dish of roasted almonds, generously salted, and a small plate of thin slices of rye bread, toasted and slathered with butter. You can ask for a menu – many customers are fans of the seafood dishes – but the most legendary items served at the bar at Gambrinus aren’t written down.
By far the most famous example of this is the restaurant’s croquettes.
“My first order is always a croquette with Colman’s mustard,” says André Magalhães, one of many in Lisbon who consider the croquettes served at Gambrinus some of the best in the city.
Carlos Serafim tells us that Gambrinus’s croquettes are distinguished not only by their high-quality ingredients – they’re made with 100 percent beef – but also by the fact that they are always served hot, a stark contrast with most croquettes in Lisbon. They’re also available with a selection of four different types of mustard, just the type of charming touch that Gambrinus excels at.
“Nowadays, young people do a kind of croquette tour, visiting different locations, and they continue to tell us that the croquettes at Gambrinus are the best,” Carlos tells us. “We get thirty or forty customers a night who just order a beer and croquettes. Sometimes we’re not able to serve all of them!”
This clandestine menu also extends to a variety of sandwiches.
“Usually, I like to keep it simple and order a prego [a steak sandwich], which is one of the best in town,” says Maurício Varela, the chef at Dahlia, and another fan of the Gambrinus bar, on his typical order, a cult favorite in Lisbon.
Lesser known is Gambrinus’s sandes de rosbife, thin slices of rare roast beef topped with tartar sauce and served between slices of rye bread. Carlos Serafim tells us that it, like all of the sandwiches served at the Gambrinus bar, involves a degree of improvisation and/or customization.
“[Customers] ask us, ‘What am I going to eat?’ We know their preferences. They have a certain trust in us,” he tells us, adding that he’s a fan of the sandwich made with the restaurant’s excellent, room-temp-runny, queijo da Serra, sheep’s milk cheese from inland central Portugal.
Performance and proximity are also part of the bar experience at Gambrinus.
“I like that little bit of entertainment that comes from watching the cured ham cut right in front of me, the dishes finished right at the counter,” says Hugo Brito, the chef behind Lisbon restaurant Boi-Cavalo.
“They still make coffee in that old ‘balloon’ equipment,” says Inês Matos Andrade, the Food Director at O Apartmento, a Portuguese PR agency, of the Gambrinus bar’s mad scientist-like siphon coffee maker. “They take their time, lighting up the wick and stirring slowly. It’s a performance.”
“Sometimes [customers] like a bit of conversation, a chat about football,” Carlos tells us. “It’s more direct, there’s more contact.”
Secret menus, suits, siphon coffee, service from another era – it’s rather intimidating stuff in these days of hyper-casual dining. But Caros Serafim reminds us of what is ultimately the bar’s casual nature, hiding in its very name: “Gambrinus is the patron of beer, the god of beer halls!”
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