There’s a new café in town and it is not the regular Portuguese one where you just ask for a bica.
As soon as we’d found out it opened its doors in the beginning of this month, we went to check for ourselves what makes it so special.
A strong smell of coffee and two friendly faces greeted us as we entered. Although we hit the closing hours, they arranged a table on the terrace just for us + Asta. The space caught our attention immediately because of the industrial decoration aligned with its specificity: the roasting process of coffee from Brazil, Ethiopia and Colombia right under your nose and the creative drip brewing using coffeemakers like the Aeropress or chemex. So skip the regular bica and go for the filtered coffee!
The Coffee Roasters Factory is our kind of café. It reminds us a little bit of the Scandinavian culture, which involves a ceremony of preparing the coffee, and enjoy it properly while seated at the table (not the bar). The difference is that in this Portuguese factory the taste of coffee is the finest one can find.
When we got there, it was a bit late for more caffeine, so we asked for two cappuccinos.
Scenario: Somewhere in Italy, at 7 p.m. Diana & Edgar decide to order two cappuccinos. The waiter starts laughing in their faces. (Apparently in Italy, it is a rule not to ask cappuccino after lunch – milk doesn’t help the digestion).
Anyways, we did and we’re more than happy with our choice. To tell you the truth, we asked a cappucino in Portugal several times, but we never really came to the right shop. This time we did and oh, the foam that got stuck on our lips!
When we asked Stanislav, the café owner, how the concept saw the light of the day, he told us everything happened while he was working in Germany where he got the bug for more sophisticated coffees. Well, good thing he did because our first impression is more than positive.
We couldn’t wait to try the filtered coffee and so we came back the next day. The mild and aromatic taste of the Aeropress and especially V60 (lighter) was what we needed on a late summer morning. Thank you guys!
Where it is located: Rua das Portas de Santo Antão, 136 (Restauradores), Lisboa
Good news: you can also take coffee home with you in either 250g. or 500g. package.
What else is served: The menu covers toasts, salads, croissants, pasteis de nata.
The friendly and cool staff at The Coffee Roasters Factory
