Riviera is crowded at dawn with drinks and 24-hour bar in SP

Almost like a mirage, the red neon decorated with coconut trees that lights up the corner of Avenida Paulista and Rua da Consolação, in the center of the capital, announces to night owls that there is shelter and the chance for a last drink before heading home.

The luminous guards the entrance to the Riviera, since 1949 at the foot of the Anchieta building, which opened 24 hours a day in February this year — a rarity in São Paulo today. The place had been closed since the beginning of the pandemic, in March 2020, and has been renovated.

After 2am, when surprisingly the capital of São Paulo seems to be sleeping, the bar and the smoking area of ​​the house are full of groups of friends and some couples, especially with a young and LGBTQIA+ audience. While talking and the night goes on, people have drinks, like the rabo de galo (R$29) or the fitzgerald (from R$34). On the dishes, bratty pizzas reign supreme (between R$36 and R$38).

There is a determining reason why the space attracts more and more people at dawn: bars open until the wee hours have become a rarity in São Paulo after Psiu, the Urban Silence Program, established in 2016 that places that sell alcoholic beverages cannot work between 1h and 5h without acoustic adaptation.

With this, the options that remain for night owls are snack bars, bakeries and clubs, with bars with closed doors. And the scenario got worse with the Covid-19 pandemic.

The night closing occurs even in traditional bohemian strongholds, such as Vila Madalena. Today, anyone who arrives after midnight in the area of ​​Rua Aspicuelta, the epicenter of the bars in the region, soon receives the notice that the houses are only open until 1 am and that is, as required by law.

“Since February, city hall inspections have been very strict regarding the opening hours of all bars in Vila Madalena. They are forcing houses to close, regardless of whether they are playing live music or making noise”, says Cairê Aoas, who commands the Fábrica de Bars group. The company manages the Branch, a bar that was known precisely for working until late at night in Vila Madalena, and the Riviera itself, in addition to other classics of the city.

Sprinkled with loose mouths by businessmen, the increase in supervision by the city hall comes in the wake of the end of the restrictions on the operation of bars and restaurants imposed by the quarantine, in August 2021, and the advance of the vaccination campaign against Covid.

“Riviera is acoustically treated and doesn’t have live music,” adds Aoas. And now that it’s always open, the winding red Formica counter has been welcoming a lively crowd after the bars have gone to sleep, especially as the weekend approaches.

“Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays are the days when the house is busiest, from 7pm to 7am,” says Pedro Xavier, 25, the site’s manager since reopening. “On these days, especially from 2 am to 5 am, our audience meter is pretty full.”

“Every time I came to the Riviera it was by accident,” says painter and screenwriter Miguel Nassif, 27, who arrived at the bar at dawn on the 2nd, on a Thursday, to end the night. “You pass by and remember that here is open for one last beer. This is valuable.”

At this time, the public is concentrated around the counter and in the smoking area — from 3 am to 7 am, the house’s mezzanine is closed to the public for cleaning and maintenance.

“I thought I would only have escorts”, jokes fashion designer Ana Cristina Santos, 30, who had not yet gone to the address during the São Paulo twilight. “I thought it was a good option for the end of the night.”

Historic bar of São Paulo’s bohemia, especially between the late 1960s and early 1990s, Riviera closed its doors in the early 2000s. It was taken over by the duo Facundo Guerra and Alex Atala in 2013 and is under the tutelage of the Fábrica de Bares group since 2019, known for taking over the operation of historic addresses in the city.

Nassif, the screenwriter, believes that the full-time opening aims at a return to the golden times of the house, which received people like Chico Buarque and appeared in the lyrics of “Clara Crocodile”, by Arrigo Barnabé. “But it won’t happen. Now the house is very empeteca”, he evaluates, about the new phase. “Having to give the CPF to open the command is the end of the sting.”