A Ginjinha: The Sour-Cherry Bar on Largo de São Domingos
Why is it significant?
Join the little crowd at the doorway and watch the man behind the counter pour a dark red liquid into a tiny glass, with just one question for each customer: com ou sem? With or without? He means the cherries. There is no room inside to sit, and nobody wants to.
Key Facts
| Place | A Ginjinha: The Sour-Cherry Bar on Largo de São Domingos |
|---|---|
| Address | Largo de São Domingos 8, 1100-201 Lisboa, Portugal |
| Geo Coordinates | 38.71470, -9.13910 |
| Part of Walk | Ginjinha, Salt Cod and Custard Tarts: A Lisbon Food Walk from the Baixa to Cais do Sodré |
| Generated | Generated |
Join the little crowd at the doorway and watch the man behind the counter pour a dark red liquid into a tiny glass, with just one question for each customer: com ou sem? With or without? He means the cherries. There is no room inside to sit, and nobody wants to. This is a drink you take standing in the street.
This is A Ginjinha, and it has been pouring since 1840. Its founder, Francisco Espinheira, was a Galician, one of the many men from north-western Spain who came to Lisbon to work in taverns and carry water. The story goes that a friar from the church across the square gave him the idea: soak ginja, the small sour morello cherry, in aguardente with sugar and a touch of spice, and wait. Whether or not the friar ever existed, the drink took hold of the city.
Ginjinha is sweet, strong and warming, roughly as strong as a port wine, and Lisboetas drink it at any hour. A builder knocks one back on his way to work, an elderly lady takes one for her digestion, students order them in rounds. Ask for it com elas, with them, and you get a cherry or two at the bottom of the glass. Dispose of the stone discreetly... this square has seen far worse.
Because this square has a dark memory. In April 1506, in a time of drought and plague, a crowd gathered at the church of São Domingos turned on the New Christians, Jews who had been forced to convert a few years earlier. Over three days, somewhere between two and four thousand people were murdered in these streets. A memorial with a Star of David was placed here in 2008, and a wall nearby carries a message of tolerance in dozens of languages.
Today the same square is one of the most welcoming corners of Lisbon, a meeting place for people from Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, Cape Verde and beyond, who gather under the trees to talk as they have for decades. Finish your glass, hand it back, and walk a few steps south-east into Praça da Figueira. On its corner, behind old gold lettering, a pastry shop has been waiting for you since 1829.