A Microbrewery in Brazil?!!

I am the type of person who needs a regular change of scenery. Before moving here I had a job where I traveled often around the state in which I worked. On a weekly basis I visited at least 2 to 3 different cities. For me this meant a constant change of my environment. I may not have liked all the places I visited, or all the driving, but I enjoyed getting out of the office and out of the town I lived in.

Now that we are in Maringá, my scenery doesn’t change too often. We have done some traveling and hope to do more, but we have to strategically plan it around the holidays that my husband has off from work.

I’ve been in desperate need of an environment change. Maringá is nice, but I needed to get out for a while. We decided to take the easiest trip possible to satisfy my need, a trip to the nearby city of Londrina. It is about an hour drive from here, not bad at all.

This is part one of three about our trip to Londrina. I thought it would be appropriate to start with our favorite find in the city. Believe it or not we actually found a microbrewery!
I’m not sure how exciting this would be for you, but for us it was an incredibly welcomed change. We love microbreweries and always try to visit them in our travels. I did not even know the concept existed here and we were definitely skeptical when our friends told us about Fabrica1 in Londrina.

It is outside of downtown and has managed to create a fun and inviting atmosphere all its own. We were surpised to see English (along with Portuguese and German) on their welcome sign. They have a huge outdoor patio with a bar and the inside is modern in décor. It felt just like popular brewpubs at home, with some Brazilian influence.

Now, I know many travelers would be asking, why would you want an experience like home when you are in the wonderful country of Brazil? Well, I would say to them that living someplace is very different from visiting. We were so happy to find this unique restaurant in a place where everything, so far, has been very much the same.

The beer was fresh and they had several different varieties. They had their versions of a pilsner, a lager and a dark beer called escuro. The escuro is a lot sweeter than most dark beers you might be used to. I enjoyed it, however, my favorite was the Cozumel where they took the pilsner, added lime and put salt on the edge.

We found some interesting foods to try on the menu, but were told our only option at lunch was the buffet. Well, we all know how I feel about buffets here, but given that it was my only option, I made the best of it. We arrived right as they opened so everything was hot and fresh.

Although, I’m not a buffet fan, there is one thing they have on the buffets here that has come to be one of my favorite foods. Banana fritas, yes fried bananas. A very simple dish, but there is something about the sweet bananas down here that just make it amazing. I’m not even a fried food fan. I usually avoid it, but these little fried gems are very tasty.

So the trip to Londrina got off to a great start with Fabrica1. I see lots of visits in the near future. Hopefully next time we’ll hit it at a time when we can order from the menu.