Where to eat in Brasília? See gastronomic itinerary – 06/01/2024 – Tourism

The country’s capital is an upside-down travel destination. In Brasília, hotel rates are cheaper on weekends. On holidays, there are plenty of discounts on air tickets.

The people of Brasilia, however, want to prove to the rest of Brazil that it is possible to love the urban utopia of Lúcio Costa, Niemeyer and Kubitschek. Two initiatives, unrelated to each other, produced affective maps of the city.

The B Hotel, one of the most luxurious in Brasília, created an affective map of 130 architectural landmarks, tours and gastronomic programs. In addition to the 36 restaurants and snack bars highlighted by Ceub (Brasília Unified Education Center), there are 161 attractions — five of them are on both maps.

An affective map provides a subjective and emotional view of a given territory. For the visitor, it acts as a guide to go where the locals go.

The B Hotel itself appears as an attraction on its map. The building, with windows arranged in an intentionally chaotic way, was designed by Isay Weinfeld and stands out in the boringly hotel landscape of Brasília’s hotel sector.

The rooftop bar, with views of the Mané Garrincha stadium and the vastness of the Eixo Monumental, has the most popular happy hour for Brasilia residents and visitors interested in fashion and design.

It is simply called 16, as it is on the 16th and top floor of the hotel. “It’s our terrace, without the rooftop,” says manager Alfredo Stefani.

The effort to keep the conversation in the Brazilian Portuguese lexicon is met with resistance from some of the regulars, who insist on calling the hotel “Bi” (like the letter “b” in English).

On the bar’s menu, however, Brazilianness and regionalism prevail, with regional ingredients such as baru nuts (typical of the cerrado) and cheese from the Serra do Bálsamo, in Goiás.

OB, like all hotels in Brasília, has reduced occupancy on days when the city is not fully operational – from Friday to Monday, 4/7 of the week, something not insignificant. Hence the idea of ​​attracting guests by promoting the capital as a leisure destination.

The affective map of B Hotel was printed and distributed in the apartments. A sample script was presented by Patrícia Herzog, the map’s curator.

It started at Memorial JK, a monument that, to anyone driving along the six-lane avenue, looks like nothing more than a giant concrete scythe.

Under the monument itself there is, in addition to Juscelino Kubitschek’s mausoleum, an exhibition with photos, films and objects that tell the saga of the construction of a national capital in the middle of the forest. Highlight is JK’s impressive personal library, with 3,000 books, recreated in a room in the museum.

From there to Asa Sul, where SQS 308, the so-called model superblock, is a preserved and functional piece of how all of Brasília should have been – but ended up not being, due to different interests and historical setbacks such as the 1964 coup.

Superquadra, in the Brasilian universe, is a set of residential blocks. In Lúcio Costa’s project, every superblock should have a public school, a neighborhood club and library, among other social spaces. This is 308 Sul, with gardens by Burle Marx and a little church designed by Niemeyer himself, who was an atheist.

From the ideal Brasília to the reality of 2023, I set out to explore the gastronomic indications on the maps. To vibrate at the same frequency, I chose places linked to the history of the capital.

The Dom Bosco pizzeria, founded in 1960 like the city itself, is just a few steps from the model superblock. The original address, it must be said, as Dom Bosco became a chain with a store even at the airport.

Mentioned on both maps, the pizzeria is a very simple place, with a greenhouse that stores pizzas sold by the slice, with a single flavor: mozzarella. Pre-baked dough, cheese and, on top, a tomato puree sauce with oregano.

It doesn’t seem very tempting. And is. But a friend gave me a tip: don’t order pizza from the greenhouse. Wait for one to come out of the oven, they come out all the time. That’s what I did. It’s not the best pizza in the world and it doesn’t pretend to be, but it’s a homemade and very satisfying snack for anyone who’s passing by and wants a snack.

A few steps away, the northeastern Xique-Xique is a little less old: it opened in 1979. It serves monstrosities (in a good way) like a baião-de-dois with enough sun-dried meat for dinner on Thursday and just come back having lunch next Tuesday, when life starts again in Brasília.

It is no exaggeration to say that Beirute, an Arabic restaurant that has embraced its bohemian vocation, is the most traditional bar in Brasília. The first address, in Asa Sul, opened in 1966; the Asa Norte unit has been operating since 2007. Both are listed on the B Hotel map.

I went to Beirut in Asa Norte because: the friend who accompanied me lives in Asa Norte and didn’t want to leave there. They say he’s better than his older brother, really. It is one of the few places in Plano Piloto that stays lively until late on weekdays.

Interestingly, the most famous food in Beirut is not kibeirut (cheese-filled kibbeh) nor kiberovo (yes, egg-filled). It’s the filet parmigiana. A good parmigiana, within the parameters of Brazilian taste: lots of sauce, tasty sauce, well-fried potatoes.

Parmigiana, unusually, seems to be an obsession among Brasilia residents. I enjoyed an all-you-can-eat steak and cheese at Roma, the oldest restaurant in continuous operation in the city, recommended by the affective map of the Ceub nutrition course.

No joke, Roma is older than Brasília. It has been operating since April 15, 1960, six days before the city’s official inauguration.

This shakes the ideas of those who, lazily like me, had the image of a planned city that appeared out of nowhere, in a second. Brasília was already pulsating when the first workers’ settlement, Candangolândia, was established in 1956.

Brasília has a history worthy of the affection mapped out on paper. Roma, an anachronistic and therefore fascinating cantina, is a preserved treasure of history that was not created by bigwigs like JK and everyone who came after.

As for the steak, take it from me: savor the history.