Students from Porto’s hospitality school take charge of this hotel and restaurant, which maintains a creative edge in line with its former function as an arts college.
You can check out the grades of former students on the report cards lining the corridor walls, and will also see marks scrawled across the 150+ paintings and sculptures scattered throughout the building.
The dining room in particular doubles as an art exhibition, with a curated mish-mash of paintings hung on the bright blue walls. The restaurant is not only creative in its artwork, but also its food, given a surprise degustation is presented every evening for a fixed price. Despite being whipped up by chefs-in-training (under the guidance of a team of pros of course), the food quality is excellent and the student waiters are eager to please.
Across from the restaurant is a cosy bar decked out like a vintage lounge room, with even more artwork packed onto the walls.
This vintage/old school look carries through to the 17 rooms – many of which are retrofitted classrooms. Antique desks and settees might rekindle memories of school visits to the principal’s office, but the rooms are quirky, fun and quite frankly, enormous. Big windows provide plenty of natural light and most bathrooms include a bathtub.
The complex is quiet given the hotel’s location in a backstreet, but it’s just a five-minute walk to Porto’s main commercial street, Rua de Santa Catarina, and the Bolhão metro station.