Close your eyes and think of Paris, with its wide boulevards and charming side streets, each graced with inviting cafés calling to you to sit a spell and enjoy the ambiance of the passing city.

Ah, I could spend hours in such cafés!

Here in Sao Paulo, we have teeming boulevards and winding side streets, but for the most part, few such inviting cafés. Certainly, some can be found in the Avenida Paulista area downtown, and in a few other European-style neighborhoods, but throughout most of Sao Paulo, lanchonetes (lawn-shon-et-shees) take the place of cafés.

Lanchonetes and bars can be found on almost every street corner and along the main roads through town. Typically designed with tile floors and walls, with fluorescent lighting, they offer travelers a quick respite from transit and the workaday world. Rather than wicker chairs and tables, they offer plastic chairs or bancas, counters where…