The only drawback of Bar do Luiz Nozoie is that it is far from my house – 03/29/2024 – Cozinha Bruta

A producer from Globo Repórter approached me a few months ago.

The program would address bar culture in Brazil. She, from Rio, was looking for a topic to talk about the bars in São Paulo. Something that differentiated them from bodegas in Rio and Belo Horizonte.

I didn’t even need to think about the answer. The bar scene in São Paulo – generally speaking, weaker than that of Rio or Belo Horizonte – shines when it comes to bars run by people of Japanese descent.

It’s something unique to São Paulo, exotic to most of Brazil.

The city has many izakayas, typically Japanese bars, with Japanese decor and Japanese food.

Some are authentic, others are designed to look authentic. The formula ended up being successfully replicated in cities where the Japanese community is numerically irrelevant.

More interesting are the bars, without any kind of international or folkloric presumption, with Japanese-Brazilians in charge. A niche in which Bar do Luiz Nozoie reigns supreme.

Outsiders have no idea of ​​the commotion that caused Luiz’s death, aged 93, last Monday (25). The old man and the bar are invaluable assets to São Paulo’s beer drinking community.

Luiz Nozoie’s Bar, in the Saúde neighborhood, has no sign or sign. It’s from a time when only the neighborhood frequented the bars and sales.

They didn’t need to announce a fancy name. All that was needed was the name of the owner, transmitted by word of mouth.

“Son, go to Carlão and buy a hundred grams of ham.” “I’m going to get some beers at Alice’s bar and I’ll be right back.” That’s how it worked.

For a long time, it was just Luiz’s bar. But São Paulo grew in size, and the fame spread beyond the outskirts of the south zone. What’s more: another Bar do Luiz, this one in the north, has achieved a similar reputation.

At that point, the two Luízes understood that they would need to sign their surnames: Nozoie and Fernandes.

Luiz Nozoie’s beer, perhaps the coldest in Brazil, doesn’t explain the patrons’ affection for the bar.

The food is exciting, especially the fried foods: pastries, shrimp skewers, corn fritters, breaded frogs. Please go try Luiz Nozoie’s frog. But the food alone doesn’t justify the aura there.

Luiz’s borogodó comes from a pile of abstract predicates. The spirit of the bar.

This includes Japanese spice, Japanese whimsy, Brazilian heat, the informality of a bar, and the Nozoie family’s palpable love for the business – which didn’t decline one millimeter when the patriarch needed to delegate responsibilities to his offspring and family members.

The parish captures this spirit and vibrates at the same frequency. That’s why Bar do Luiz Nozoie is an almost perfect bar. Almost.

Preá, a cartographer of Copacabana bars from Botafogo, preaches a peculiar theory: the best bar is the one closest to home. I kind of agree.

The only drawback of Bar do Luiz Nozoie is that it is too far from my house. That’s why I drank much less there than I would have liked.

Rest in peace, Luiz.

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