Casa da Madeira do Norte Porto – Back to the islands

Casa da Madeira is not your regular bar. It’s not quite a bar even. It is an association by and for the people from Madeira, the one of the two archipelagos that belong to Portugal. And if for natives from Funchal or Porto Santo this place gets a special meaning, I assure you that you don’t need to be a madeirense to fully experience what this small but familiar place has to offer.

And where to begin? Well, Madeira is quite famous for its poncha (a strong sweet alcoholic drink made essentially with aguardente from sugar cane and lemon juice), so you can either drink it traditional way or mixed with passion fruit juice. It is also one of the few places (if not the only place) that serves Coral beer, the standard industrial local beer made and drunk in those islands.

For entertainment, it has super cheap table football and electronic darts, and the music swings over the preference of the patrons, since it has a laptop with an internet connection ready to become everyone’s mixing table. It is one of my mandatory stops when I’m going out, excellent for drinking, playing and laughing just before clubbing!

It also has cultural events during the week, with quizzes, poetry and so on: check their agenda for further details.

The customers are generally quite familiar faces, since this place is not really advertised or easy to notice: just enter the green gate with no fear, and enjoy!