O Cravinho

O Cravinho sits right on Largo Terreiro de Jesus, next to the Basílica Cathedral in Pelourinho. Julival Santos opened it in the late 1980s to revive infused-cachaça recipes passed down through his family — drinks rooted in Black and Indigenous knowledge, made with herbs, fruit, bark and honey rather than anything mass-produced.

What's actually in the glass

Around 30 flavors get poured straight from barrels behind the counter, the signature Cravinho itself mixing cachaça, clove, honey and lime. Jatobá steeps cachaça with jatobá bark for 60 days before it's honey-and-lime finished; Senzala adds wine and catuaba on top of that same bark infusion. Reviewers on Google rate the drinks and the food — moela de frango com cravinho and carne de fumeiro artesanal both come up often — consistently well; the recurring practical note is that seating in the back rooms and bathroom access both cost extra, worth knowing before you sit down.

Four rooms, one bar

The space splits into four connected areas — Cravinho at the entrance, Jatobá just past it, the Cachaçaria alongside, and Senzala Vip further in — rustic wood furniture patrons have nicknamed the "Flintstones House." Open 11am to roughly 9:45pm most days; check the bar's own Instagram for exact hours on holidays, since they shift. Thirty-eight years in, it's still the Pelourinho stop that gets recommended over the tourist-facing bars around it.