Vhils, Eusébio and Cosme Damião are present at the new hotel, located in the former Benfica secretariat, where the club’s history is covered.
Right at the entrance, a giant tiled panel, designed by urban artist Vhils, depicts Cosme Damião, the founder of Sport Lisboa e Benfica, and welcomes those who arrive. Next to the door, a shirt from the current football season, signed by all the players, is the first reference to the club, and the only one at the entrance to the 1904 Benfica Hotel, which opened its doors this week.
Decorated in dark red, despite the name, it is not, says António Quintão Pereira, from from the Feelslikehome group, which operates the hotel, “a club museum. We wanted to create a hotel where Benfica’s presence is dominant, but we didn’t want a museum, especially because the weight of the museum is very strong, but we couldn’t help but tell the club’s history.”
Thus, throughout the five floors of the 1904 Benfica Hotel, the history of the club, of the various sports, is covered, says António Quintão Pereira: “we remember a time when Benfica began to be golden, since its foundation, the first 60 or 70 years, which were spectacular”. The work, he concludes, was “challenging”, due to the changes that the building underwent over the years, but, he confesses, “I think we managed to maintain the aura of the space, with the restoration of a bar area, inspired by the Bristol Club, the first tenant of the space, and later as the Benfica secretariat”.
The 1904 Benfica Hotel has 56 rooms (from €100), a dining area with a Café de São Bento restaurant, Clube 1904, where you can hold meetings and watch football matches on a giant screen, and which also serves as a social area for events. Each room has a small window next to the door, with objects linked to mythical figures from the club’s various sports, such as Cosme Damião’s identity card, Eusébio da Silva Ferreira’s shirt, with the particularity that, reveals António Quintão Pereira, “the keys to these spaces are in the possession of the Benfica Foundation, which, when it sees fit, can exchange them for other pieces in the museum”.
The last Café in São Bento de Lisboa
Scheduled to open on January 15th, the new space marks the symbolic meeting between two icons of the city: Lisbon’s most famous steak gains a new stage in the historic area of theaters and the Coliseum, of music and shows. This new is located in the 1904 Benfica Hotel building. With around 150 square meters and capacity for 70 seats, this is the largest Café in São Bento to date and will also be the last to open in Greater Lisbon.
The room is marked by the bar at the entrance, the mirrored ceilings, the red velvet of the armchairs and the wood of the tables, which are lined up framed by the magnificent pair of life-size female sculptures by Leopoldo de Almeida, testimony to the modernist phase of the Club Bristol. The grandeur of these pieces marks the sophistication of the environment and naturally dialogues with the classic timelessness of Café de São Bento.
Faithful to tradition and customer demand, the menu remains unchanged and focused on the essentials: the famous steaks. The highlight continues to be the quality of the meat, the precise cut and the Café de São Bento sauce, the recipe of which has remained a closely guarded secret since 1982. The steaks continue to be prepared from sirloin or sirloin, served in three versions: the iconic Bife à Café de São Bento, the traditional Bife à Portuguesa, with garlic, bay leaves and ham, and, exclusive to this Café de São Bento, the classic Chateaubriand cut with sauce Bearnaise. The price varies depending on the cut and weight chosen: 250g sirloin steak (€33), 200g steak (€28) and 200g fillet steak (€25).
São Bento Coffee
The starters include the “Duck foie gras”, accompanied by apple and pear chutney, served with toasted bread (€13), the “Shrimp al ajillo” fried with garlic and chilli (€13) or the “Steak tartare with veal loin”, hand-chopped, seasoned according to tradition and served with toast (€14). These proposals are joined by new starters, such as “Veif Croquettes” with mustard (€2.50), “Amêijoas à Bulhão Pato” (€16) and “Ostras (€14) for six units. For those looking for alternatives to meat, in fish dishes, in addition to “Bacalhau gratinado” (€20), “Bacalhau à Brás” is also now available, exclusively in this new location. (€22) and the “Galo fish fillets” with tomato rice (€23), in a direct homage to some of the great classics of Lisbon cuisine.
São Bento Coffee
O (Rua Jardim do Regedor, Lisbon. Tel. 213421271), he was named as an allusion to the club’s founding on February 28, 1904.
