Cervejaria Devassa

 

I stumbled upon this place two blocks away from my hotel in Ipanema. The pub itself reminded me somewhat of an open air European cafe, relatively small with some outdoor seating, similar to a lot of restaurants near the beach in Rio. They have a fairly extensive menu with everything from pizza to steaks and even some tapas. The beer is of pretty decent quality; as another reviewer pointed out it is much better than what you would normally get in Rio. They had five of their own beers on tap and while the english descriptions in the menu were a bit off, they were all enjoyable. The food was quite good and a fairly decent value by the standards of the city. Devassa is very much worth checking out if you are in Rio.

There are actually several Devassa Bars in Rio and the surrounding area. This review is of the Leblon location. This is one of the places you can get unpasturized Devassa beer on tap. Although it isn't the greatest beer in the world, it is better than almost any tap beer available in Rio de Janeiro. One perk of going to the bar is that you can try the Devassa India Pale Ale. It lacked the hop and alcohol punch of a traditional IPA, but it was interesting to try. Basically, you can get 4 different beers on tap. Most of the Brazilians were drinking the Loira Pale Lager. I thought the dark was interesting and different from other cloyingly sweet Brazilian dark lagers. The place is a bit on the small side and was pretty crowded at 10 pm. Lots of young people (it was January summer break). The menu consisted of pub type items (hamburgers, etc). Most people seemed to be enjoying themselves. It's worth a try if you want to revive your taste buds from the usual Brahma Chopp.