Portugal - Day 13 & 14
September 20 & 21, 2025: Weekend in Cascais! This was a spur of the moment change to our itinerary when we were in Cork, Ireland. I think I mentioned in a previous blog post that when we went to Jameson Midleton Distillery we met Thomas, who was our teacher for our Cocktail Making Experience. We ended up being the only two in class that day and so we had a lot of time to chat with him. While showing us how to make and Old Fashioned and Whiskey Sour, he mentioned that he just learned that morning he was going to be traveling to Cascais in Portugal to work at the Chefs on Fire event. We said, “we are going to be in Cascais, when is the event?” It turned out we were going to be there a day before the event, so I changed our date and added an extra day to our plan. I quickly went out and secured tickets to event and so that is how we found ourselves there this weekend. We are SO happy we learned about it and decided to go. It was an absolute blast!
A little about Chefs on Fire. It is Portugal’s one-of-a-kind gastronomy and music festival. Born in 2018 from a simple birthday celebration in the Alentejo, the event has grown into a culinary pilgrimage, where some of the country’s most talented chefs gather to cook exclusively over fire either by smoking, roasting, or grilling in clay ovens. This year the venue was moved to the Parque Marechal Carmona and we were told this was the grandest event yet. It was much bigger than we expected. There was live music, artisan workshops and lots of little areas set up with either picnic blankets, hay bails, tables, old sofas and chairs where attendees could just hang out. The tables were decorated with rustic centerpieces and the drinks were served in glassware, not plastic cups like many events these days. Between the food and the atmosphere, it was truly the most impressive event we have attended. But back to our story. When we got there we went to the Jameson bar to see if we could find Thomas. The bartender we talked to said, “he talked about you guys on the plane on the way over!” I’ll take you to him. So he walked us over to where Thomas was working and so we had a reunion of sorts. We ended up stopping by his booth several times throughout the day and really enjoyed getting to know him. Such a nice guy and it made it an even more fun experience.
We stayed at the Hotel Baia, which I would recommend if you ever find yourself in Cascais. It is reasonably priced and it a very central location with great views of the waterfront. We took a walk down the promenade to a place called Boca do Inferno (Devil’s Mouth) and stopped at an Irish pub called O’Neill’s. The hotel had a small pool, but it wasn’t heated and was really more for guests to exercise and do laps more than anything. They did have a nice patio which we did enjoy and even played a game of Farkle out there. We also walked around the top and did some shopping and found our favorite Pastel de Nata shop “Manteigaria,” so of course we had to have one. It was a wonderful weekend, just a few days left in Lisbon before we head to our last stop of the trip, Madeira. We are very excited to see the island and see how it compares to Hawaii.