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Although there are plenty of bars on Copacabana’s famous Avenida Atlântica – or even at the beach, at the so called quiosques – very few are worth a visit. Many are just tourist traps. Others are much too expensive. No, the really good bars in Copacabana are inland, along Barata Ribeiro street. That road, along with some of the side streets that let onto it, reveals the true face of Copacabana’s popular gastronomy.

One of the first bars you encounter on Barata Ribeiro is Galeto Sat’s. Open seven days a week, always until 5 a.m., the bar is a bohemian temple – but it’s far from being only that. For many cariocas, Sat’s serves the best galeto in town. A galeto is a very young chicken (no more than three months old) cooked over a big coal-fired grill.

Galeto on the grill at Galeto Sat's, photo by Vinicius CamizaThere are plenty of galetos in Rio, especially in Copacabana, but the one from Sat’s is special because of the sauces that are served with it: lemon, orange and garlic. They sound simple (and they are!), but those sauces, made in-house by the owners, make all the difference. Eating a sauced galeto at Sat’s is a truly carioca experience.

Hanging above the big counter are the bar’s other treasures, a long lineup of the finest Brazilian cachaças – an open door to another unforgettable experience. The owners, Sergio Rabello and his wife Elaine, are well-known specialists in cachaças. Each year, they travel all over Brazil looking for the best bottles of the stuff, and their cachaça list at Sat’s is one of the most respectable in town. A few to try: Weber Haus, Casa Bucco, Canarinha, São Miguel and Monte Alvão. Though maybe not all at once.

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Vinicius Camiza

Published on August 14, 2014

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