Brazilian steak house!!

New place just opened here in town. Check out this concept! Anything like this near you?

http://www.pampasteakhouse.com/

About five years ago so-called Brazillian steak houses took the Mediterranean by storm opening in Athens, Istanbul, Izmir, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beirut and Damascus. Alas, nearly all of these were nothing more than poor imitations of Brazillian churascurarias, serving huge quantities of the cheapest possible cuts of beef made tender only by long marination and then cooking on vertical spits over charcoals. The true churascaria has no vertical spits. What they have is two deep long pits, both long enough to spit roast a whole side of beef, and several pigs simultaneously, the pits filled on alternate nights with hard wood (jacaranda being the wood of choice) and those burned until reduced to charcoals.

Meats of the highest quality are served in huge portions, invariably accompanied by equally huge plates of thin cut French fries and a somewhat humongous fresh salad, that always including hearts of palm. And the de rigueur beverages are either beer or, for the brave of heart, cachaca with beer chasers. As to the beer, always served in iced pitchers and when the ice on the surface goes down to the half-point the pitcher is automatically replaced with a fresh pitchers.

As to memories, my first visit to Rio de Janeiro was a three month stay in 1968. Dinner at the finest churascuria at that time was an amazingly reasonable US$5 including service. On a more recent visit in 1992 the same meal at the same churascuria was the equivalent of US$35 per person. And, to tell the truth, damned good value even at that price.

I can gladly report that after a 4 - 5 year reign of popularity primarily among the young, most of these Mediterranean imitations have long since folded up their tents and vanished into the night.

Best
Rogov

Yes, one opened in Redding a couple of years ago. We went and tried it out. Lots of meat, beef, chicken, lamb, can't recall what else exactly, but it all was seasoned the same and tasted almost the same. You get protein overload. Side dishes were not so good. They went out of business in a very short time. It did not go over in the big meat eating town...not sure why.

vertical spits over charcoals. The true churascaria has no vertical spits.

It is my recollection in the Rio Plantense region that if the cooking is done out of doors asado style the vertical spits are used. Typically wood is burned at one end and then when it becomes hot coals it is shoveled near the vertical spits. I never saw a whole steer done. I can remember walking down the main street of Montevideo and seeing the spitted meat cooking up front by the window. At picnics or rural restaurants the cooking was usually out of doors. Lambs were also placed on an angle and the coals were shoveled under them. an old single bed spring was many times used outside for whole lambs. The most I saw done were 8 whole lambs for a whole town picnic fundraiser. The funds were used to purchase toys for the "kings" to bring into town on Kings Day.

In downtown Minneapolis there is a Foca de Chao, a unit of a Brazilian steak house chain with the spitted meats. The meat is salted too much for me.

We have been to several of them out of town and we have a few in the Palm Springs area.
They are pretty much the same everywhere I think. Huge, extensive salad bar, family style sides and probably a dozen different proteins. We rather like them and especially like the Brazilian sausage and "Brazilian style" cut of beef they offer. It's kind of an entertaining way to dine, sort of like the Japanese Steakhouses were back in the 80's. I'm sure this will be a dieing fad also.

When I lived in Westchester, New York there was a Brazilian Steak House in Portchester that was pretty good. Since I've moved to Florida I've found a popular one in Delray Beach named Gol. It's been open for several years now and is quite nice and successful, a fun evening. But it's a bit Americanized. I've had the real thing in Sao Paulo, Brazil and that's an order of magnitude above anything here.

The Ironbound section in Newark has several Brazilian "rodizio" places. Most of the meat is cooked on skewers over charcoal, but I doubt any whole cows or pigs are roasted. One place I have tried several times, Brasilia, claims to serve 18 different cuts of beef plus some other items like sausages, poultry and organ meats. You can get the widest choice by going when they are busy. The quality can be variable and sometimes these places are guilty of oversalting (maybe to run up the drinks tab?). I've never been too impressed with the salad bar, but that is obviously not what you go for. For drinks, get the capirinha made at your table by the delightful roving capriniha girls. More of a good night out than fine dining.