Founded by Manoel Lebrão in 1894 and recognized as cultural and artistic heritage of Rio de Janeiro, Confeitaria Colombo runs a Copacabana outpost, Café do Forte, inside the historic fort. It serves the house's traditional pastries and sweets alongside a weekday lunch buffet.
Best for Historic Rio pastries and coffee with a fort-and-beach view
This branch of Rio's celebrated Confeitaria Colombo occupies the grounds of the Forte de Copacabana, a fort still run by the Brazilian Army, where it opened on 27 November 2003 originally as a support concession for the fort's own museum. The Colombo name goes back further: the original house was founded in 1894 by Portuguese immigrants Joaquim Borges de Medeiros and Manoel José Lebrão in Rio's Centro district, and a 1913 renovation gave it the belle-époque décor — crystal chandeliers, jointed columns, cane-seat chairs — that both the Centro flagship and its offshoots still trade on. The Forte outpost built its own reputation gradually on the strength of that history and an unmatched setting: tables set against the low wall (mureta) overlooking Copacabana beach are the most sought-after in the house, with a climate-controlled indoor room as the fallback on hot or rainy days. Best known for its breakfast service, the café also runs a proper lunch menu — the octopus dish Polvo Del Mare is a particular draw — plus starters and drinks aimed at people staying through sunset for the view. It keeps the Colombo house's cakes, savoury pastries and coffee on the same recipes as the Centro tearoom, just with a fort and a beach in place of the belle-époque salon.
Contemporary art gallery founded in Rio de Janeiro on 6 September 2003 by artists Marcio Botner, Ernesto Neto and Laura Lima. Its purpose is to be a place to think, produce, experiment, celebrate and commercialize art, while disseminating diverse artistic voices from Brazil and beyond.
Rio de Janeiro vintage and secondhand-designer resale shop in Botafogo, associated with founders Manoela Carvalho and Flavia Kux; ships nationally within Brazil. Its website currently shows a password-gated 'on a break' notice.
Best for Vintage and designer resale, as featured by Vogue in Rio
Arquivo Contemporâneo is a Rio de Janeiro design showroom selling furniture and lighting by Brazilian names like Sergio Rodrigues and Oscar Niemeyer. It has a second Rio location at CasaShopping and a showroom in Brasília.
Best for Rio de Janeiro design showroom in Ipanema selling Brazilian furniture and lighting
Arquivo Contemporâneo bills itself simply as "o melhor do design brasileiro" — the best of Brazilian design — and its catalogue backs up the claim. The Rio de Janeiro showroom, with a second address inside the CasaShopping mall and a further outpost in Brasília, deals in furniture, lighting, and objects by the country's best-known modern and contemporary designers: Sergio Rodrigues, Oscar Niemeyer, Jorge Zalszupin, Isay Weinfeld, Arthur Casas, Claudia Moreira Salles, and Jader Almeida all appear on its designer roster, alongside imported Vitra pieces sold at outlet prices.
The Ipanema store, on Rua Redentor, is the original address; CasaShopping, in Rio's Barra da Tijuca district, is the larger-format location, open through weekends and holidays. Beyond retail, Arquivo Contemporâneo regularly builds installations for Casa Cor Rio, the annual interior-design showcase, having staged rooms and spaces there across multiple recent editions — evidence of a business that positions itself as part of Rio's design scene rather than just a furniture retailer.
Assimply Studio designs furniture and decorative objects from industrial waste, including dining, coffee and side tables, benches, chairs, sideboards and mirrors, under collections such as BRUT, NU, MONOMORFO and TERRA VERMELHA. It is located at Rua Leôncio de Albuquerque 33 in Gamboa, Rio de Janeiro.
Ateliê Juma is a ceramics studio at Rua Conde de Itaguaí 28 in Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro, offering ceramic classes for beginners and workspace for amateur and professional ceramicists. It also provides co-working facilities and firing services for third parties.
Curto Café operates a specialty-coffee café and online shop in central Rio de Janeiro. Its current range includes Arabica coffees, house blends and microlots, while the café occupies the ground floor of the Cândido Mendes building at Rua da Assembleia 10.
Brazilian resort brand inspired by Rio's beach culture — refined swim shorts and linen resort wear in sustainable quick-dry fabrics and graphic prints rooted in Rio's beach culture.
Best for Swimwear, Resort Wear
Frescobol Carioca is a Brazilian brand established in 2009, inspired by the relaxed yet energetic beach lifestyle of Rio de Janeiro. The brand takes its name from the well-known beach game of frescobol, a paddle ball sport native to Rio. The brand celebrates movement, connection, and outdoor fun through high-quality products and an emphasis on the lifestyle rather than just sportswear. Frescobol Carioca's collections feature refined tailoring, breezy linen fabrics, and distinctive graphic prints inspired by Brazil's beach culture. Their swimwear is cut from quick-dry sustainable materials and crafted for feather-light comfort, designed for both laid-back lounging and active play. The company has expanded from its origins in frescobol rackets to create a full resort wear line including swim shorts, linen shirts, espadrilles, and other beach accessories. Frescobol Carioca commits to environmental responsibility by using hand-collected driftwood and native hardwood offcuts recycled from Rio's carpentry trade in their manufacturing.
Rio’s great jewelry house, founded 1945 — Brazilian colored gemstones worked into sculptural gold at the Ipanema headquarters, worn from Carnaval to the red carpet.
Julia Gastin is a jewellery shop at Av. Henrique Dumont, 68, Loja G, Ipanema. Every piece is handmade, from the raw material to the finish. It sells earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets, brooches and hair accessories.
Best for Handmade earrings, necklaces and bracelets
Voador Tecelagem sells handwoven tapestries, rugs and runners made with the kilim technique on manual pedal looms using 100% cotton thread, plus blankets, pillow covers, placemats, bags and custom pendant lamps made with 100% wool tufting. It also offers hand-painted canvases on 100% raw cotton fabric.
Rio bookstore opened 1979 by Dalva Gasparian on Rua Dias Ferreira in Leblon, a year after her Argumento launched in São Paulo. Known for stocking books banned under Brazil's military dictatorship; still family-run with an attached café.
Best for Brazilian literature and Leblon book browsing
Livraria Argumento was founded in São Paulo in 1978 by Dalva Gasparian, who started the bookstore partly because of the difficulty her husband, the businessman and publisher Fernando Gasparian, faced distributing books from the family's own publishing house, Paz e Terra, under Brazil's military dictatorship. The following year, in 1979, she opened a Rio de Janeiro branch, choosing Rua Dias Ferreira in Leblon, near her own home, for a small shop of just over 60 square meters.
During the years of heaviest censorship under the dictatorship (1964-1985), Argumento became known as one of the few bookstores in Rio still carrying titles considered subversive or banned, drawing students, journalists, writers and academics who could find little else, and turning the shop into an informal meeting point for a generation of Brazilian intellectuals.
In 1993 the store expanded into a new space on the same street, adding CDs and DVDs to its stock and opening an attached café, Café Severino, which remains part of the shop today. The bookstore later gained wider national recognition after appearing as a filming location for the telenovela Laços de Família (2000-2001). Dalva Gasparian ran Argumento until her death in 2017, after which her children took over: Marcus in financial management, Eduardo running the café, and Laura handling book acquisitions.
Mercado Moderno specialises in Brazilian modernist furniture and design objects in Rio. Condition, authorship and restoration should be checked piece by piece because most vintage inventory is unique.
Best for Brazilian modernist furniture and design objects in Rio
Nannacay is a Rio de Janeiro fashion and accessories brand making bags, bucket hats, clothing and scarves in a resort and urban style with natural fibers and crochet details. It also runs a sustainability initiative and collaborations under its special projects line.
Osklen combines Brazilian sportswear and tailoring with surf references and lower-impact materials. Sneakers, jackets and accessories carry the urban identity, while product-level composition should guide sustainability claims.
Q Chocolate is a Brazilian bean-to-bar chocolatier with a Rio de Janeiro boutique. The range centers on cacao-forward bars and chocolate made to highlight Brazilian origin and flavor.
Best for Brazilian bean-to-bar chocolate and cacao bars
Brazilian menswear brand founded in 2004 in Rio de Janeiro by Rony Meisler and Fernando Sigal, who began with humor-driven graphic t-shirts before growing into a full apparel label; acquired by Arezzo&Co in 2020 for R$715 million.
Best for Contemporary Brazilian menswear with preppy and urban influences
Reserva was founded in 2004 in Rio de Janeiro by Rony Meisler, a production engineer, and Fernando Sigal, an advertising professional. By the company's own account, the idea began at a gym, when the two noticed several men wearing an identical style of shorts and decided there was room for clothing with more personality and humor. They started with graphic T-shirts and built the brand around a distinctly carioca sensibility before expanding into a full menswear range emphasizing comfortable fits and bold prints. Over time Reserva extended into a children's line (Reserva Mini), an activewear line (Reserva Go), and a restaurant carrying the Reserva name. In 2020, Arezzo&Co acquired Reserva for roughly R$715 million, folding it into a larger Brazilian fashion group; Arezzo&Co itself merged with Grupo Soma in 2024 to form Azzas 2154, now one of the largest fashion companies in Latin America, making Reserva part of that combined portfolio. The brand maintains retail locations in fashion districts such as São Paulo's Rua Oscar Freire alongside stores across Brazil.
Independent vintage and secondhand fashion boutique operating in Rio de Janeiro (Botafogo area, WhatsApp contact uses a Rio 21 area code), selling curated women's and men's clothing, blazers, knitwear and accessories, including an 'archive' vintage section, in-store and online.
Best for Vivid vintage fashion at a Rio address noted by Vogue
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