Olympic athletes and fans looking to blow off a little steam have been frequenting a Rio bar with a very strange name.
Bin Laden’s Bar is run Jose Felipe de Araujo, 60, who resembles the late founder of the al-Qaida terrorist group, mostly because he sports a huge, bushy beard.
Rio%27s Bin Laden bar, named for its owner%27s appearance, is a hit with Olympic athletes
“After September 11, everyone started calling me bin Laden for obvious reasons,” de Araujo told . “The nickname stuck, so I decided to use it to my advantage.”
The bar, which stays open until 2 a.m., is the only one near the athletes village, and de Araujo said athletes from Argentina, Iceland, Russia, Spain and others had stopped by, according to the , a London newspaper.
"Where Olympic Athletes Unwind in Rio: The Bin Laden Bar" by SIMON ROMERO via NYT
While de Araujo doesn’t speak English, the language barrier hasn’t seemed to be a problem for the decade-old bar and its customers.
"When they want something, they point, I point, and it all goes right somehow," he told the .
In addition to cold beer, the bar serves food, including grilled sirloin and pizza, the reported, adding that the steak comes with rice, beans and pasta and costs only $4.40 a plate, which is much cheaper than anything else nearby.
Rio 2016 athletes popping to %27Bin Laden%27s bar%27 for a bevvy
“The Olympic Village gets boring and the food is somewhat, well, monotonous,” Carlos Vizcaino Sanchez, 48, a Cuban emigre who coaches track-and-field athletes in the Seychelles, told the . “I never thought I’d find bin Laden in Rio, but here he is.”