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BeerCascais
The shoppers had run dry…in that everyone’s low-alcohol light flashed on. We’d done our best to wander through every cork-selling, port-pushing, tile-vending loja in Cascais–which was once a fishing village west of Lisbon on the Atlantic coast, but now mainly hosts tourists on a week’s holiday (or Brits escaping the rain). I’d reached my €15…
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Dunes Make Perfect Peaks
Friends met us in the park, but the café was closed. “Why don’t we go out to the dunas?” they asked. Why not? Every season’s different on the Duna da Cresmina, just up the coast from the town of Cascais, in Portugal. We’d walked the boardwalk in February, August, November, watching as the paths covered…
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Salgados With Sagres
We turned the calendar over Memorial Day earlier this week, and–aside from the solemn honor we pay on that day to our fallen heroes–the day also marks the unofficial beginning of summer in the U.S. It might as well be true in Portugal, as well, because the thermometer has crept back up above 28C over…
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Layover In Lisbon
Even in a hotel filled with Americans, you can spot the airline crew the second you walk into the bar. The jean shorts, the golf shirts, the neatly groomed hair…the clutch of folks who clearly know each other well but cannot possibly be related in the family sense–because everyone’s about the same age save for…
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Hops & Drops, Praia das Maçãs
Women who brew are a rare breed in Portugal, and we’ve had fortune smile upon us enough to have a great micro brewer stake a claim just down the hill from our home in Praia das Maçãs. Marta Pardal began brewing her IPA, Sete Ais (7 years), in Magoito a couple of years ago, and…
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Flor de Lúpulo, Lisboa
So nice we stopped in twice…on the same night. Nothing encourages me to leave the comfort of my couch early for a meeting in the city like two things: beating the traffic snarl at 5 pm, and the chance to hit a new pub along the way. So we drive down to Lisboa an hour…
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Carnaval En Deux
I’m a longtime fan of Mardi Gras, so I took to Carnaval in Portugal quite naturally. Though grand displays of drunkenness (or nakedness) aren’t my style, the act of dressing up outrageously and wandering though the streets with a open cup of libation holds a lot of appeal. My first Carnaval two years ago included…
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Flagship February
I had the first of my brews for Flagship February a wee bit prematurely, on Burns Night (January 25), a Scotland-appropriate Punk IPA brewed somewhere in Aberdeen. As an early introduction to the craft beers of the UK, it was fine a few years ago—and it remains a favorite. That’s why we celebrate the month…
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BK Beers
On our French trip in high school, my 17-year-old self encountered that mashup of culture americaine et française: Le Royal Cheese at McDonald’s. We laughed—but cut ourselves short in awe. You could order a BEER with your Mickey D’s pommes frites! So I was well-versed in the more casual approach to fast-food brew by the…
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Cerveteca Lisboa, Principe Real
On the Praça das Flores, the evening descends and the lights come on all around the not-quite-square plaza. In the midst of Principe Real, in Lisbon, patrons turn to their favorite hangouts for a bite and a beer…it’s a fine Saturday in January so people are out and about, enjoying the last drops of sun.…