Lisbon protects its old shops by law and then lets them tell you whatever they like about their own age. Five rooms from a cherry-liqueur counter with no seats to a cabinet of curiosities you have to ring the bell to enter, and three of them carry the city's Loja com História plaque.
- 1 · The Cold Open
A Ginjinha
Ask for it com elas and the sour cherries come in the glass. The 1840 on the sign is the family's own folklore and they say so in as many words: it belonged to a tavern on another street entirely, run by the founder's father. The business here dates from 1910, when Francisco Espiñeira Couziño started it and had this shop remodelled, and the family is on its fifth generation. One counter, no seats, drunk standing on the Largo with everybody else. The city protects it as a Loja com História.
the business 1910, and the 1840 is folklore the family admits · daily 9am till 10pm · verified Aug 2026
- 2 · The Detour
British Bar
The clock runs backwards and nobody can tell you why. The city says a Danish regular gave it, Time Out says it is nineteenth century, and Público, who looked hardest, says only that it has always been there. What is checkable is that Alain Tanner filmed it in 1983, with Bruno Ganz and Teresa Madruga arguing in front of it about whether running backwards is simply another way of measuring time. Under this name since 1919, on the site of an older English tavern. It shut for a refit in 2014 and was trading again by 2015. Three drinks are made in house, including a tangerine liqueur you will not find anywhere else.
est. 1919, on an older English tavern · Mon-Sat noon till 4am, Sun till 9pm · verified Aug 2026
- 3 · The Anchor
Cervejaria Ramiro
Seventy years old on 7 April 2026, and they published a signed letter that day saying so, which is better evidence of a founding date than most plaques manage. It is a cervejaria, so beer is the frame and the shellfish is the reason: gambas al ajillo, still hissing in the garlic, is what the queue is for. Pedro Gonçalves runs it, married to the founder's daughter. Sources cannot agree whether the founder was Ramiro himself, a Galician, or Ramiro's father with Ramiro adding the seafood later, and we are not going to pick. It is not a Loja com História, which surprised us as much as it will surprise you.
est. 7 April 1956 · Tue-Sun noon till half past midnight, closed Mon · verified Aug 2026
- 4 · The Wildcard
A Tasca do Chico
Francisco Gonçalves, Chico, had lived in the Bairro Alto since 1972, and in 1996 he opened this in what had been a warehouse for olives and cured meats. The fado is on Mondays and Wednesdays and it is amateur fado, which is the whole point: professionals come in after their paid sets elsewhere and sing for nothing. English guides say 1993; the Museu do Fado's own national register says 1996 and names the man, so we take that. Wine, close quarters and no room to speak of. There is a second one in Alfama, which is not this one.
est. 1996, in an old olive warehouse · nightly from 7pm, fado Mon and Wed · verified Aug 2026
- 5 · The Last Call
Pavilhão Chinês
Five rooms of glass cabinets, and you ring the bell to get in. It was a grocer's from 1901, selling spices and coffee and tea, and Luís Pinto Coelho turned it into this in 1986, keeping the old fittings and filling them with toy soldiers, helmets and model aeroplanes. He also made A Paródia, the Foxtrot and the Procópio, and all three are protected by the city alongside this one, so one man is behind four classified Lisbon bars. Cocktails, pure teas and a snooker table at the back. Take a dry martini into the fourth room, where the model aeroplanes are.
a grocer from 1901, this bar since 1986 · Mon-Sat from 6pm, Sun from 9pm, till 2am · verified Aug 2026