It is not an island, but it has sea everywhere: in the view, in the decoration, in the letter of the jangada restaurant and even in the work of Bordallo II, a huge crab made of scrap – the artist’s brand image – near the back of the hotel (“to breathe sea even on the walls facing east”).
You and the Sea opened in 2018 and is a kind of younger brother of the 1908 Lisboa Hotel, but that brother always on vacation and slippers, or not staying in Ericeira, right in front of the south beach. The owners are the same (the couple Marta Faustino and Daniel Matias), the restaurant’s menu was developed by the same duo of the Infamous, but instead of a centenary building, Valmor prize, the hotel is in what could have been a luxury condominium, with 35 apartments with typologies ranging from the studio to t5, generous areas, fully equipped kitchen and a no-look of details and jokes of words that underline the relaxed atmosphere, from the sign to hang on the door that reads “we went to the beach” (or else “we stayed on the snoring”), to the straw basket hanging at the entrance, through the slippers “sea you, sea me” and the robes with the phrase “shell we dance” on the back (children are entitled to their own version, “small fish”).
The fish, of course, is not lacking, nor the surf. There are classes for those interested in the world famous waves of Ericeira and also a spa with Voya products – entitled to a beautiful illustration of Mariana Miserable at the entrance – for those who prefer less radical activities.
In the center of the island that is not an island is the restaurant, a kind of heart of the hotel, strategically placed by the indoor pool, overlooking the sea and open to non-guests. “The menu is great because we are open all day and the restaurant was designed for families,” summarizes the resident chef, André Rebelo. “We both have the after-the-beach snack and the light or late lunch, and parents can come and eat a seafood rice while the kids eat a burger.” Among the younger (and not only) pizzas are also famous, made right there in the living room, in the wood oven, and with homemade pasta of slow fermentation. The fish is from the coast, the local products, and the kids are entitled to an individual with hobbies and crayons so they sit.
Also thinking of the little ones, next to the gym was created a toy room with the right to large screen. It is an interior room, but, as it could not fail to be, it also sees the sea, or had the walls not been painted as if we were at the bottom of the ocean.