pavilhao chines

Located on the north side of the Bairro Alto, Lisbon's Soho-like grid of streets packed with bars, shops, eating-houses and tragic women wailing fado songs, the Pavilhao Chines is a wonder to behold. It's not especially Chinese: touches of Viennese café, Habsburg museum, Paris brothel and New Orleans poolhall jostle together in this 19th-century former "fine grocery" store. Designed by Luis Pinto Coelho, it's a cabinet of curiosities: toy soldiers, trains, china dancers and brass tigers, a score of teapots dangling from the ceiling. The front room is full of cocktail drinkers, the middle bar lolling whisky-sippers, a third full of students watching television, while the back room features a billiard table where young blonde women show off their ball-breaking skills. The place is open until 2am, so it's perfect for that end-of-the-evening bourbon-fuelled rumination on life. Drinks are expensive, and indulging your taste for Famous Grouse would make a shocking hole in your wallet. Better to try some home-grown reds, especially Dao and Douro. Since you're in Portugal, you'd be nuts not to try a late-night port. You're looking for two words on the label: colheita (wood-aged for at least seven years) or garrafeira (aged in glass demi-johns for decades). Take a slug, watch the red-waistcoated waiters swish around self-importantly, listen to the jukebox playing Blur, U2 and Supergrass, and you'll find no good reason why you should ever leave this magic junk shop.