Hotel Santa Teresa's upmarket bar and terrace
The locals may still not be too happy about it, but the rustic-yet-chic Hotel Santa Teresa continues to gather spaces in hipster magazine's global 'Top 100 Hotels' lists by cranking up a notch what so many of the beautiful guesthouses here already do and quadrupling their prices. What few of the competition can touch is the huge space devoted to the hotel bar where a beautifully tiled terrace looks out over the bay, housing day beds for afternoon lounging and romantic, candle-lit nooks as the sun goes down. Through the original brick arches is a smart lounge into which the resident mixologist launches his latest creations.
The classics are perfectly handled, from Black Russians to a fine Old Fashioned, but switch over to the Iced Tereza (rum, mate iced tea, lime and mint) or BMW (sake, tomato juice, soy sauce, wasabi and pepper) for something a bit more leftfield. Grapa, limoncello and four styles of Mistura Clássica beer (including a decent stout) go at least some of the way towards completing a confounding choice.
Santa Teresa, Rio de Janeiro
Telephone (21) 2222 2755
Prices 300ml bottle beer R$8; caipirinha R$18; cocktails R$20-$34
Open Daily noon-11.30pm
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