Rua Edson Dias: discover the address of Meretriz and Azulzinho – 04/06/2023 – Bars and nightlife

In the early hours of the last Saturday in March, when São Paulo hosted the Lollapalooza music festival, another mix of sounds could be heard in another corner of the city, hours after the Interlagos Racetrack had closed its doors.

On the small street Edson Dias, in Pinheiros, which makes the corner of Rua Cunha Gago and Avenida Pedroso de Morais, more than a hundred people circulated along the street that became one of the busiest spots at night in the neighborhood in the western part of São Paulo .

On a sidewalk, under the television glued to the wall of the Drink’s Bar —which was broadcasting the show by singer Ludmilla performed that afternoon at the festival— couples danced to the sequence of hits of forró by the band Falamansa next to a drinks stand full of colorful fruits.

At the bar next to it, a group of women did the TikTok dance to Leo Santana’s Carnival hit, “Zona de Perigo”, and at Meretriz, all the pool tables were occupied and there was a long queue.

Across the street the decibel level was much higher. In one bar, young people holding glasses of drink listened to funk and, in the establishment next door, customers danced under strong blue lights to songs played by a DJ who ran the party in the space affectionately nicknamed Azulzinho, which had operated there since 2016 with a disputed jukebox in that each musical request costs R$ 0.50.

This movement, which fills a good part of the hundred meters of Edson Dias street and fills the street bars with young people eager for an “after” —a place where people go when all the others in the city have closed— grew as the rules of pandemic isolation became more flexible in the capital.

The combo of loud music outdoors, cheap drinks and the guarantee of a party until well after 1 am, when bars in Pinheiros normally close their doors, won over an audience as diverse as the musical styles that come out of the speakers of the road.

“The crowd started going up here because the bars always stay until 6 am, so everyone comes after leaving Estepe, Amata, Kingston [casas da região]. And the street was picking up, so much
that today nobody knows her as Edson Dias, but as Meretriz. The ride always ends here,” says Delly Oliveira, one of the space’s partners.

That night at Lollapalooza, however, Azulzinho said goodbye to that side of the street to start sharing the roof with the best known bar in the area, Meretriz, from the same owner. Its neighbor on the sidewalk was also getting ready to close its doors and transform itself into a tobacconist that sells drinks and occupies just one small door in Cunha Gago, next to Shiba Market — a novelty that mixes bar and nightclub and has been successful in recent months.

The reason for the stampede was the purchase of the land on the left side of the street by developer Yuny, who is going to launch a real estate project on the site. The well-known nightclub Kingston, which is on the street parallel to the bars, also announced that it will close its doors later this month for the same reasons.

The closure is part of a vertical trend in the neighborhood that was accentuated during the pandemic and has already closed the activity of other spaces, such as the Bona concert hall, which was on the same Álvaro Anes street where Kingston is located and which will be reopened in another location.

According to Oliveira, from Azulzinho, the news that they would have to leave the property was given in September, and work on the new development should start in the next few days. “People are a little apprehensive because nobody knows what the movement will be like after everything is demolished”, says the owner of Azulzinho, saying that she is also worried about noise complaints when the buildings are ready.

Sought by the report, the developer Yuny did not respond about the expected completion of the works until the publication of this report. “This weekend it was a little more quiet. Everyone’s on it, it’s going to be very good or very bad”, says Oliveira.

Meanwhile, at number 99 on Edson Dias, Azulzinho has joined its famous jukebox to the pool tables at Meretriz —R$5 for there buys you a game to the sound of four songs — and continues to serve beers, cups of Kariri with honey and other drinks from tuesday to sunday, from 5pm “until the time there is a client”.

5 places to visit nearby

Coffee Shop Club
R. Cunha Gago, 599, Instagram @coffeeshop.club. Wed., Fri. and Sat., from 22h. Advance Tickets in coffeeshop.hoppin.com.br

Steppe
R. Cunha Gago, 588/583, Instagram @estepe.sp. Every day from 15:00 to 24:00

meow club
R. Cunha Gago, 678, Instagram @meow.maison. Thu. to Sat., from 22h. Advance Tickets in meow.hoppin.com.br

Gizzard
R. Cardinal Arcoverde 2.320, Instagram @barmoela. Mon. to Thu., from 4 pm to 11 pm; Fri., from 4 pm to midnight; Sat., from 12:00 to 24:00; Sun., from 12:00 to 18:00

Shiba Market
R. Cunha Gago, 559, Instagram @shiba.market. Wed. and Thu., from 6 pm to 1 am; Fri. and Sat., from 6 pm to 2 am