Churrascaria

Non-Phish General
#1

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Churrascaria

There is a Brazillian restaurant in town up here called Souza’s that offers this kind of dining. For a fixed price (~$40) you get a kick ass salad bar, good steamed veggies, mahi mahi, desert, and the unique experience of having skewers of varying meats brought to you continuosly through the evening.

I took my girlfriend there last night for her birthday, and I am still quite stuffed this morning. The Gaucho (see wiki above) said that we had tried everything, so we were content as we got rolled out on to the street after our meal. This included filet mignon wrapped in bacon, lamb, chicken, top round, top sirloin, turkey wrapped in bacon, roasted jalapenos, and chicken hearts. Basically, he would come out from the kitchen with a large skewer of one type of meat at a time and go around to every table offering it. There were little cards on the table, one side green, one side red. If you wished to have some of the meat, you left the card green side up. Once you reached capacity (either plate or stomach) you would flip the card over and not have to deny the gentleman the pleasure of cutting up more meat for you.

This was a wonderful dining experience, and would highly recommend it to anyone coming to town here, or to try similar establishments around you if you had any doubts before. It was more similar to European dining in that it is quite alright to take your time eating and enjoy the food, rather than being rushed out so that another party can occupy your table. I am sure that the high fixed cost keeps many away, but this made it all the more intimate.

#2

damn Chris, it’s only 10:20 in the AM and I’m fucking starving now. Damn.

p.s. How were the chicken hearts??

#3

I think we got the hearts after they had been cooking a while. A little tough, slightly chewy, tasted like chicken. I would like to try one more freshly cooked.

This brings up a question that I had, which is, how do they keep the meat cooking when there aren’t many customers. Sure they are on a rotisserie system, but wouldn’t they eventually dry up and be less good? I’m sure they have this all worked out, it just struck me as an odd thing to have to deal with in the kitchen.

And for the record, I got a bagel thisa morning as I usually do, and refuse to touch it for fear of exploding. I am not hungry, and don’t know when I will be (or WillB for those of you scoring at home :wink: ).

#4

They used to have one of these Brazilian restaurants right outside of the fort, and we used to go there a few times a year when we felt the need to sink our teeth into meat. Lunch was much cheaper than the dinners, I think we paid about 15 bucks, and they offered the same things on the salad bar. They just brought less meat choices around.

But what was cool was that every so often they would offer some exotic meat like kangaroo, venison, or rabbit. Too bad they didn’t serve up weasel. Then I could have ripped into weasel flesh while listening to weasels rip my flesh.

Yes it was definitely fun eating your way through the animal kingdom, brought to you on these nearly flaming skewers. But the place is long closed down. Guess there just weren’t enough flesh eaters around to make it work.

But for any of the NY metro folks here who are interested, there is one of these restaurants on east 49th St in Manhattan in case you’re curious about this type of fine dining.

It’s 49th St in Manhattan:
http://www.churrascariaplataforma.com/

#5

Yup, that’s about it. Souza’s offers a lunch menu as well, think I’ll have to hit them up when the craving for meat carving comes calling.

#6

That sounds really cool, I am always up for something new and different.

Not to steal this thread, but has anyone ever been to a Tapas restuarant?

Very unique dining experience.

Basically it is a Spanish idea, where all you eat are appetizers. If you are in a group of four or so, each person would order 4-5 (or whatever) appetizers, and those would all be shared around the table. So you don’t really get a “meal”, but you fill yourself up on a lot of different flavors.

The only one I have ever been to was a few years back in Florida, Cafe Tu-Tu-Tango. Deeeelicious.

Anyways, to get back on topic, I will be on the look out for a Churrascaria restaurant around these parts. Thanks for the info!

#7

sounds great, thanks for the heads-up!

Will, you resturante sounds terrific as well.

#8

I went to one of these in New York long before I quit meat. Very good, and I tried sushi for the first time on the salad bar.