Lisbon has some truly wonderful specialty coffee shops. From big to small, the Portuguese capital has lots of unique spaces to choose from. One of the ones that I loved a lot during my recent visit there was Dramático, a pizza slice shaped café near the city’s botanical gardens.
This cosy coffee shop is known for exclusively serving coffee from Denmark’s La Cabra and for having a mean matcha game. It was founded by Ricardo Galésio who also created Wrong Journal, an independent travel magazine.
My friend Maxine and I were in Lisbon for a work event and I wanted to use my time off to explore the city’s coffee scene and to see how much it had changed since my last visit in 2017. The answer is A LOT. Back then, there were only a handful of good places that served high quality specialty coffee. Now, there are many and places like Dramático are the ones shaping the local scene.
Despite the strange layout, the team behind Dramático did a great job at maximising the space. The bar occupies the pointy part of the café and huge windows along the entire length of the shop help to flood the café with light. There is a Rocket espresso machine on the counter and a small container with large cookies. Behind the bar, you can see a shelf with a collection of beautiful ceramics and cofee brewers.
On the day of our visit, we were looked after João who also brews fresh pour overs and exquisite matchas. The café has a very homely vibe to it despite its 14m² of space. We observed many regulars popping in and out, grabbing a coffee to go or just catching up with friends. This is also a good place to read carefully selected magazines or catch your breath from all the ups and downs of Lisbon’s streets.
