São Paulo, the tomb of bohemia – 08/22/2023 – Cozinha Bruta

I have just received the birthday invitation from Ivan Finotti, correspondent for Sheet in Europe and my friend since middle school.

There is the place –it will be in São Paulo, Brazil– and the time. With a very clear warning: last drink served at 11.30 pm.

Shit, Ivan, even you?

Just you who opened a nightclub in the city center and another in Barra Funda to shake your ass (or lack thereof) who needed to leave the house seven nights a week?

Before anyone argues that we are old, I counter: it is the purest truth. But that alone does not explain the death of São Paulo’s bohemian vocation.

I already wrote about it in 2021. When the text came out, the pandemic and the consequent collection of the population partially justified the abandonment of the night.

The health emergency has cooled down, but the nocturnal apathy is consolidated.

It’s hard to drink in São Paulo after midnight. Finding a decent dinner is next to impossible.

Yes, there is a constellation of Oxxos open all night. Yes, some strongholds of the early mornings also resist, such as Estadão, Burdog, Joakin’s and others in the munchies category.

It’s very little for a city that used to leave the house at 10 pm to have dinner on the street.

Not that I care too much, to be honest. I’ve been going out a lot less, but even so, old and poor, I was surprised by the city’s monastic schedules.

A few weeks ago, I received some friends from Brasilia and we went to drink in Barra Funda, which is crowded with people until about 10, 10:30 pm. At 11 pm, we had to humiliate ourselves so that the pub owner would sell us more beer.

At midnight we received the splash of non-negotiable expulsion.

Is it lack of money? Is it lack of security? They are good and insufficient explanations. I dare say that there is a broader change in habits. They say that young people are drinking less, who knows. They always say something like that.

São Paulo was once the tomb of samba. It was also the city that doesn’t wake up, just settles down. It is no longer one or the other.

We deliver the dawn to the birds that sing maddened by the light and noise.

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