Post Tagged with: "Porto"

World’s best bookshop cafes
/ April 5, 2011 11:11 am

World’s best bookshop cafes

BOOKSELLER Bernard and his consiglieri, Manny, are brainstorming schemes to attract customers into Black Books: ”We can’t let them find reasons to leave – we can feed them! Lunch and dinner! … a gym … no, that’s a bit much.” Perhaps Manny should have suggested an attached Black Books Cafe to keep the punters in? Today’s beleaguered bookshops often have [...]

Cafe Lello, Porto
/ April 4, 2011 2:14 pm

Cafe Lello, Porto

The cathedral-like Livraria Lello, at 144 Rua das Carmelitas in the Portuguese city of Porto, is so atmospheric tourists reverently lower their voices. Manager Antero Braga explains: ”The bookshop was opened in 1906 and designed to echo the monastic library tradition which preserved Portuguese culture during the Moorish invasion.” Carved trefoils adorn bookshelves, gargoyles peer down from corbels and a [...]