Sebinho Cultura e Gastronomia: A better-than-good sidewalk café and bistro as genteel as the pleasures of the great bookshop within
Not too long ago, I wrote about the effect of the pandemic on my all-time, all-around favorite bookstore, Paris’s Shakespeare and Company. Today, I want to introduce you to a bookstore in Brasilia which is sure to delight the minds of international readers and locals alike.
By Milan Sime Martinic
There is a lot more than a bookstore crammed into the entire bottom-floor storefront of the commercial superquadra on Bloco C, SCLN 406 in Asa Norte. Sebinho Cultura e Gastronomia is a compound of offerings under the same aegis, loosely segregated for flow, each leading into a magic world in the imaginations of book and culture lovers. To help you stay and linger, Sebinho has along its sidewalks a café that is a gastronome’s delight with as much good taste in food as the rest of the shop in reading options.
Sitting at a sidewalk table like one you find in European cafes, the food came quickly in keeping with what was quality, courteous service, and attention. Filet Mignon in a Gorgonzola sauce with Leek Linguine and Crunchy Garlic was a perfect complement to a Moroccan Ragim of vegetables in a curried cream sauce gratineed with Parmesan over almond rice which was sublime in its taste and transported my taste buds to a Marrakech market at the first bite.
In an arguably illogical city that obeys a modernist logic where aesthetics often matters more than function, Livraria Sebinho has carved a niche selling Tom Wolfe, Kafka, and James Joyce using a true and tried booksellers' logic of old – along sidewalk displays in bins and spinners with an exhilarating array of favorite authors and other quality works in paperback, hardcover and coffee table books available at extremely reasonable prices, R$2 to R$10 for some incredible finds. The appeal of boxes and boxes of unsorted, cheaply priced books is extraordinary.
Sebinho is part of a rapidly extincting breed of bookstores around the world offering an ample range of used books, music, comic books, and card games. It is an atmosphere that is particularly welcoming for readers who want to congregate and engage with books and with each other.
This is no Barnes & Noble formula bookstore, one can feel the care and love for culture, for literature, and context put into the two-story buy-sell-trade bookstore (yes, there is a basement full of books, vinyl records, card games, comics, and more) and though it is highly organized, and it even has selections by author’s name, it does have the random, comfortable feel of Shakespeare and Company.
A step into Sebinho is a step into a million uncharted ways to the rest of the world, none of them right or wrong, all of them potentially a journey of discovery and wonder. The bookstore's vast collection includes titles in the most varied areas: Literary criticism, economics, philosophy, Brazilian, classic, and foreign literature, poetry, social sciences, foreign languages, arts, religion, politics, geography, environmentalism, and much more.
As it happens Sebinho claims the title as the largest comics distributor in Brasilia, but you will also find there cards, bookmarks, games, vinyl records, action figures, t-shirts, sarongs, and literary-themed gifts.
Of course, words cannot do justice to the pleasures of a good bookshop, one that holdsthe most important stories of all time, there taking up a whole bloco in an out-of-the-way Brasilian superquadra, holding the whole world for you to explore while you want for a carefully thought-out gastronomic offering surrounded by beautiful books.
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Since 2010 the Sebinho Cultural project promotes literary events, debates, courses, book launches, exhibitions, cultural meetings, poetry readings, reading series, and other activities.
The bistro offers various chef’s specials each day at mostly reasonable prices, available from opening to close. Sebinho is open 11:30 am to 8pm Monday through Saturday.
☆☆☆☆☆
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Kitsch, Country, Arabian-style Grape Juice, and Churrasco on the Veranda Reward Drive to Emporio Casa da Uva in Planaltina
By Milan Sime Martinicut past Sobradinho toward Vale de Amanecer, off Rota 61 DF in Planaltina, a pleasant surprise lies just to the side of the road in the form of the Empório Casa da Uva. Literally, a grape emporium house, but it is so much more. Fronted by a “lojinha” in a house-like structure, it is a unique general store selling everything from an unrepentantly pulpy and strong Arabian-style grape juice which you can buy fresh or frozen to take home, to bottle-aged wine, to throwback trinkets, cured meats, vintage candy, and pickled foods you haven't seen in decades along with artisanal and colonial foods.
There are also homemade grape-based breads, myriad skins, and some of the best churrasco in Brasilia, at considerably reasonable prices served on tables on the wraparound porch. If you are lucky, you will sit by the grill and get a chance to chat with the owner and chief churrasquero.
Emporio Casa da Uva is open for lunch and shopping every day from 8 am to 6 pm, but if you want to be sure not to be left out of your chance at a darn good country churrasco by a long wait for a table, be sure to get there by 11 am. If you do have a choice pick a table, close to the grill for the best effect.
☆☆☆☆☆
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