Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Drinking
Near the UPR campus in Río Piedras, Av Universidad is worth a wander for its many
student-oriented bars.
OLD SAN JUAN
Old Harbor Brewery
BREWERY
(202Tizol; 11:30am-1am)
Yes beer fans, life does exist beyond Medalla. The only mi-
crobrewery on the island, Old Harbor concocts a handful of excellent varieties, including
a Coquí lager, the Kofresí stout, a rotating seasonal variety and a 9% double bock brewed
for Christmas. Dine on upscale pub fare amid the gleaming copper kettles, or round up a
few friends to drain a 64-ounce beer tower. In the 1920s, the building housed the New York
Federal Bank. Spent grains become animal feed at local farms or get processed into biofuel.
Rivera Hermanos Cash & Carry
BAR
( 157 San Sebastián; 11am-midnight Mon-Sat)
A 35-year-old institution run by two
Rivera sisters (who didn't bother to change the sign), this cavernous liquor warehouse is a
vibrant community hangout for local artists, intellectuals and students, where live salsa and
boleros
(ballads) fill the evenings, and local poets recite to longtime patrons over cheapo
Medallas and inexpensive bottles of wine. You can even borrow an instrument for one of
the frequent pick-up jam sessions.
Los Cuernos
BAR
( San Sebastián; 10:30am-midnight, to 3am Fri & Sat)
Wedge your way into this
long packed bar, where students and young hipsters socialize under a wall of Puerto Rican
masks and scribbled-on international banknotes. The draw here is the flavored
chichaítos,
an inexpensive Puerto Rican favorite of rum and anise liquor, available at $1 per shot or
$6 for a
caneca de sabores
(premixed flask-sized bottle). It's tasty, sweet and decidedly
strong, and you have a choice of 25 flavors, including passion fruit, coconut and ginger.
Taberna Lúpulo
BAR
