After a splendid evening in Porto, the next morning it was time to head out on our Atlantic coastal hike. We started by catching a ride up to Póvoa de Varzim, a major coastal resort area along the Atlantic coastline. Much of the initial hike was along Póvoa de Varzim’s waterfront, and since we were hiking in October, just after the main holiday season, the waterfront’s many, many small cafés and bars for the summer tourists had mostly gone into off-season mode, either closed entirely or limiting their operating hours. As we reached the northern outskirts of Póvoa de Varzim, the settlements all leave the water’s edge and retreat behind the large sand dunes the compose much of Portugal’s Atlantic seaboard, and the various stores and resort amenities thin out. But we knew there was at least one café in Aguçadoura that still regularly operates in the off-season, and that was our destination: Café Dunas.
Nestled away on a small business strip just east of a large bank of sand dunes, Café Dunas (the name means “Sand Dune Cafe”, and it’s a sort of generic name, we ran into two other, unrelated Café Dunas’s and one Dunas Café on our coastal walk) is the sort of neighbor café that most smaller Portuguese villages have, with a decent array of espresso drinks, sandwiches, and televisions indoors and out with various football matches ongoing. However, being only about 100m off the Caminho Português da Costa, they also do a pretty brisk business with walkers (both informal hikers like us, and the various pilgrims).
As we relaxed with our beverages and reviewed the menus, I discovered an important fact: my brother Dan have never experienced a Francesinha. As you can read in my older review of Café Santiago in Porto, the Francesinha is a Porto region specialty. The classic Porto style Francesinha is quite the construction: A panini-pressed sandwich on thick toast with layers of steak, ham, griled linguiça, cheese, and maybe even a few other meats. this being one of the places various cafés customize their own take on the Francesinha. Take the resulting sandwich, layer several overlapping pieces of cheese over that, and melt the cheese under a broiler. Then, put that on a bed of fries. Then cover the entire thing with a tomato-and-beer spicy gravy, molho de Francesinha, of uncertain but delicious composition. It’s literally a hot mess on a plate. A glorious hot mess. So I insisted Dan order one. Café Dunas’ version was exactly as expected: a nice, large steak, ham, and linguiça sandwich with the requisite cheese topping, over fries, and ladled sauce over the whole mess. Dan rather enjoyed it.
Myself, I also had a Francesinha, but I went for the other style of Francesinha, the Francesinha Poveira (“Povoa de Varsim style”). This is a bit more like a Portuguese version of a Cuban sandwich: linguiça, fiambre (a kind of ham), cheese and mustard in pão cacete, a roll resembling a slightly crustier hot dog roll that’s been heated in a sandwich press to melt it all together and put some great grill marks on it. I rather enjoyed this variation, and it was admittedly a bit easier to eat than the classic Porto-style Francesinha.
And Carol had yet another Francesinha, the Francesinha Poveira Gratin, which is basically a fusion of the two different Francesinha styles: a basic Francesinha Poveira like mine, but also covered in cheese and “Francesinha sauce” like the classic Porto style. Honestly, this was probably my favorite of the bunch.
Overall, we liked our stop at Dunas. Dan got to enjoy a good exemplar of the classic Porto-style Francesinha, the rest of us enjoyed variations on the Poveira styles of Francesinha, and the place was friendly and enjoyable. It’s definitely a great resource for folks traveling the Coastal way.
