Shop where
the locals do
Every morning, as the sun begins to strike
Porto’s stone streets and azulejo tile façades,
young and old head out for their daily retail
ritual. Eschewing the one-stop shop, they
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market, Mercado do Bolhão, and the tiny
grocery stores, mercearias, that populate
surrounding streets. Each has its speciality,
and the oldest, Mercearia do Bolhão, smells
of smoked meat and coffee, with a base note
of spices. A few doors up Rua Formosa is
century-old A Pérola do Bolhão (‘the pearl of
Bolhão’). Inside, owner António Rodrigues
Reis maintains a statesmanlike position at
the till while his son António Alves dos Reis
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with joyful laughter when a pensioner
buying its prized nuts cracks a joke.
António the younger looks a little like
Picasso in his prime, and confesses that he’s
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‘I am an artist and a sculptor, so my passion
is for the creative side of the business,’ he
says, showing me a wall collage he created
using old wine crates and black-and-white
photos. ‘I also love getting to know the
different people who come in here. They
come to see what’s good, to taste and to
smell – but also to talk.’
I step across the street and inside Comer
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1916, the business specialised in importing
goods from Portugal’s colonies. It changed
its name after a local newspaper reviewer
said the place made him want to ‘eat and
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offer a cornucopia of canned goods, wine,
chouriço (the Portuguese equivalent
of chorizo sausage) and the mountain
cheese for which the shop is particularly
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room with a heady scent as they age.
merceariadobolhao.com;
comerechorarpormais.comClockwise
from left: Art
Nouveau tiles
on A Pérola
do Bolhão’s
shopfront;
sardine tins
inside the
store; sweets
on the counter
at Mercearia
do Bolhão;
António Alves
dos Reis
chops up
roast pork