NETJETS US VOLUME 9 2019

urban primer
The newest places tick all
the boxes, from brunch
spots and cocktail bars to
clean-eating joints
© CASA DE CHÁ DA BOA NOVA, ANTONIO CHAVES, ANTÓNIO PEDROSA/4-SEE/LAIF, © VINUM RESTAURANT & WINE BAR
its new visitor center in an historic lodge;
GRAHAM’S (grahams-port.com) now has an
excellent winery restaurant, Vinum; and the
upcoming World of Wine from TAYLOR’S
(taylor.pt), which commandeers a number
of historic warehouses for a wine-themed
culture center along the lines of Bordeaux’s
Cité du Vin, may prove to be a game-changer
for this sleepy quartier.
If top-shelf hotels in Porto were once
thin on the ground, nowadays the visitor
seeking splendor is spoilt for choice.
A decade of openings has left a high
watermark in the PALÁCIO DE FREIXO
(pousadapalaciodofreixo.com), a fabulous
restoration of an 18th-century mansion on the
riverbank, the blueprint of which cunningly
factors in the early-industrial flour mill next
door; and THE YEATMAN (the-yeatman-hotel.
com), in the wine district of Gaia, a sumptuous
property that put oenological tourism firmly
on the city’s agenda. Smart townhouse hotels
and boutique boltholes have multiplied in
the last five years, notable examples being
TOREL AVANTGARDE (torelboutiques.com),
ARMAZÉM (armazemluxuryhousing.com)
and PESTANA PORTO – A BRASILEIRA
(pestanacollection.com), a new arrival from the
Pestana group incorporating the century-old
and now resplendent A Brasileira café. But
the bigger excitements, it has to be said, are
at the top end of things: Porto’s chattering
classes have been much exercised by the
new MONUMENTAL PALACE (maison-albarhotels-le-monumental-palace.com)
on Avenida
dos Aliados—a formerly tatty 1920s Grand
Hotel whose Art Deco stylings have been
stunningly repointed by local design studio
Oitoemponto.
Porto may be the HQ of a world-class
wine, but the city could never have been
described as a gastronomic hub. Until its
recent boom, the pleasures of the portuense
table were to be found mainly in the city’s
down-home repertoire of salt cod á Gomes de
Sá, octopus rice and the famous sandwichin-sauce
the francesinha, preferably devoured
in an old-fashioned cookhouse down by the
river. The newfound revolution in Porto
restaurants has changed all that. Chefs of
renown have disembarked in number, most
notably José Avillez, possessor of a selection
of locales in Lisbon, whose CANTINHO
DO AVILLEZ (cantinhodoavillez.pt) on Rua
Mouzinho da Silveira takes laid-back Iberian
snacking to new heights of deliciousness.
Elsewhere, Ricardo Costa holds one of
northern Portugal’s few Michelin stars at
The Yeatman and Rui Paula showcases
his fresh New Portuguese cooking at DOP
(doprestaurante.pt) and at the CASA DE CHÁ
DA BOA NOVA (casadechadaboanova.pt).
(The latter, a beachside tea house-cum-gastro
destination up the coast in Leça, is an early
masterpiece by genial Porto architect Álvaro
Siza and worth a visit for the building alone.)
Meanwhile, a new batch of talented younger
chefs is cooking up a storm at gastro-bistros O
PAPARICO (opaparico.com), BARTOLOMEU
(bartolomeu.com.pt), OFICINA (oficinaporto.
com) and MISTU (mistu.pt).
Apart from alta cozinha per se, the newest
Porto places tick all the boxes of international
urban fashion, from brunch spots and cocktail
bars to clean-eating joints—but the best of
the bunch are original and striking. Between
the Clérigos Tower and the riverside Ribeira,
it can seem that every other renovated, tile-
57 NetJets