Fasano inaugurates its largest hotel in Itaim Bibi, in SP – 04/26/2023 – Tourism

The year 2023 has proven to be auspicious for restaurateur Gero Fasano. On Wednesday of last week (19), he celebrated 61 years of life and, the night before, the result of tests that showed his perfect liver “like a child’s”, in his words —especially good news for those who have already underwent two organ transplants. Next month, the most anticipated of celebrations: on Monday (8), the Fasano São Paulo Itaim, the largest of all ten hotels in the group, will be inaugurated.

Gero Fasano, surname at the head of one of the most important luxury brands in Brazil, highlights another good reason for celebration: his new venture will be born exactly 20 years after the Hotel dos Jardins opened its doors in the avenue that bears the name of his great-grandfather , Vittorio Fasano.

“Between having a competitor here in Itaim and competing with myself, I prefer to compete with myself”, says Gero. “It’s a unique location. The hotel is a tribute to our Milanese heritage,” he says. Sofas, armchairs and tables, furniture that design the space between the lobby and the bar, for example, are by Minotti, a brand from Milan that gained global fame for its sobriety, elegance and minimalism.

“Talking about Fasano is talking to people through architecture”, he continues. The hotel was designed by Marcio Kogan, a signature that was also present in the group’s first hotel, which signals the continuity of the classic features of the brand’s Italian heritage. “With so many excellent Brazilian architects, we don’t need foreigners who want to show their services”, he says. “We’re sober and we know what we want.”

At the Itaim Bibi hotel, contemporary elements were incorporated into the interior design project. The basalt floor dialogues with the wooden slats that cover virtually all of the hotel’s walls, as well as the shelves in the most spacious suites, such as room number 1804, with an area of ​​200 square meters.

“You’ll never feel at home here. You’ll feel like you’re in a Fasano”, says Gero, who is obsessed with quality, as those around him define it.

Between the lobby and the new bar, on the left side as you enter, there is a gallery of old photos of the group, such as the one from the Jardim de Novembro Fasano Restaurant, in Conjunto Nacional, a gastronomic classic from the 1950s. it is very likely that other historical records will be incorporated into the corridor of images.

That’s because the restaurateur has his eye on a book that’s almost a century old, a gift from Nonna, in which old photographs, in black and white, of different regions of Italy can be seen. “I would love to have a tapestry by Picasso or the Venetian doge by Bellini, but I can’t,” he says. “I’m a photography lover, I studied photography and I think photography is something very understandable to human eyes, even more than, I don’t know, modern art.”

Gero then thought of including some of these secular images in the Fasano family photographic retrospective, building a bridge between Italy and Brazil and connecting their sister cities, Milan and São Paulo.

The history of the Fasano family in the country begins in 1902, when great-grandfather Vittorio left Milan for São Paulo and opened Brasserie Paulista in the center of the city. Today, the Fasano group, in partnership signed in 2007 with the company JHSF, controls 30 restaurants and 10 luxury hotels, located in Salvador, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Boa Vista, Angra dos Reis, Belo Horizonte and Trancoso, in addition to a unit in Punta del Este, Uruguay, and another, more recent one, opened in 2021, in New York.

In so many comings and goings to his homeland, Gero found at least 110 engravings in antique shops in Milan. They integrate the decor of the hotel apartments in Itaim. In the bedrooms, the illustrations occupy only one side of the headboard. “Less is more,” he points out.

The same reasoning applies, so far, in relation to the bar and pool on the 20th floor. “I’m afraid it will fill up too much. Sometimes, it’s hard to keep it straight. For now, the space will be exclusive to guests”, he warns.

From the top you have a generous view of São Paulo. On the left, the view extends across Jardim América and meets the clock, set on top of the 1930s-style English brick building on the façade of Fasano Jardins.

It is certain, however, that the Fasano São Paulo Itaim will have a branch of the Gero restaurant, in a more affordable and informal version of the award-winning Fasano restaurant, which will serve not only guests.

The head office on Rua Haddock Lobo continues to be very popular. Hence the idea of ​​opening the branch, which will have an outdoor area with 30 seats facing Rua Galeno de Revoredo, where there will be an entrance for those arriving only at the restaurant.

Apart from the private room for 20 people, the main hall holds 75 seats. Discreetly, on the side wall is another black and white photo. In it, Fabrizio Fasano (1935-2018), patriarch of the family, takes a nice mouthful of “spaghetti al pomodoro”. The gesture would be repeated by Gero, in a portrait made in the late 1990s next to his father, in which the two smile with pleasure when tasting the typical Italian dish.

With 107 apartments, the new hotel in Itaim is already full for the opening week. One more reason for Gero to have a smile on his face.