The Gin House

Gin before breakfast

Ice, tonic water, Hendricks gin, cucumber, rose petals, mixed together, watch how the night empties reveals itself inside the same glass. Without leaving the room, other ice cubs, tonic water, Beefeater 24 gin, orange, cinnamon, in a large balloon shaped glass, fade into the dawn. This is just a tiny sample of The Gin House nightly basis, from Tuesday to Saturdays, until 2am.

The name doesn’t need further description. And if this place added its name to the popular nightlife streets of Porto’s Downtown already filled with bars, it also followed a recent trend drinking Portugal.

With more than one hundred and fifty imported brands and few exquisite tonic waters, this club offers so many different combinations of addictive cocktails that one could easily spend almost a whole year there without ordering the same drink. Blended with rare grapes, or flower petals, citric or sweet flavors, with the help and knowledge of the bartenders or personalizing your own original gin and tonic.

This gin heaven has a terrace at its gates, on the sidewalk of Cândido dos Reis street, one of the busiest arteries of the city under the moonlight. This extra combined with the snug interior design, with the bottles of every brand of gin from the menu as décor on the walls, and its dancehall, results in a nice, liquid, place to warm up for those long weekend nights, to the sound of pop-rock music. And during the rest of the week, there aren’t many things as pleasurable as gin and tonic to enjoy quietly before going to sleep.

For other social or more introspective special moments through a glass, red wine at Café Candelabro, champagne and sparkling wine at Champanheria da Baixa or Porto Wine cocktails at Porto Tónico are enough reasons to savor this city’s nightlife.