Editorial
Rio drinks after work in the street. The boteco is the format, a counter that pours cold chopp into small glasses and pushes salgados across the bar, and the crowd spills onto the pavement with the beer. We judged these on the draft and the welcome, not the decor.
Ten made the list. They run from Leblon and Ipanema to Centro, Urca and Santa Teresa. Our full Rio after work bars money list and the wider after work bars worldwide guide go deeper, and the Rio de Janeiro bar guide covers the rest of the city.
For one stop, make it Bar Urca for the chopp and the seawall. For a night, start at Bracarense in Leblon, work down to Jobi, and finish late at Cervantes over a pork sandwich.
Rio rewards drinking outside. Order the chopp cold, eat the bar snacks, and stand on the pavement with everyone else. The boteco is the city at its plainest and its best.
Sources: Visit Rio; Guia da Semana; venue Instagram pages; Google Maps reviews; r/riodejaneiro.