With the end of the Mercearia, what is left of the old Vila Madalena? – 02/27/2024 – Gross Kitchen

After years of public agony, the bar Mercearia São Pedro finally closed its activities in Vila Madalena.

The feeling, even among longtime and faithful regulars, is one of relief. What happened in the throes of Merça was not pretty.

I was a longtime regular, but by no means faithful.

I see friends and acquaintances posting fond memories of the bar that transformed their lives. Who knows how many marriages among the intellectual elite of the west zone of São Paulo began in that grimy place.

What makes a bar special is not the quality of the food or the temperature of the beer.

Mercearia São Pedro, let’s face it, never stood out for its cuisine. The beer was cold, but the atmosphere was rustic at the limit of tolerability.

That doesn’t matter.

What matters to the orphans of Merça are the people who frequented it, the stories and myths that were born on the greasy tables and uncomfortable chairs on Rodésia Street.

I, who am neither a marginal writer nor a filmmaker from Pernambuco, was a voyeur of this story.

I, who am not an Australian rocker and did not go to high school in Alto de Pinheiros, felt out of place in Merça.

I, who lived with these characters for work and pleasure, could have made an effort to join the clique. I didn’t do it because I didn’t feel like it. My choice.

Just as it was the choice of one of the owners of the Grocery Store to sell it to be demolished by a developer. Real estate speculation is blamed, but I want to see what they would do in the face of a huge offer. I have friends, regulars at Merça, who did the same thing with their garden houses.

The problem is that only one of the owners chose to sell the bar. The other, who is also the first’s brother, wanted to continue. An open family fight ensued.

The atmosphere at Merça became heavy. Typical regulars, who didn’t mind the half-assed food and precarious facilities, fled the sour atmosphere. The soul of the bar was gone, all that was left was a carcass that had never been much of anything.

I, who have never been a regular customer, feel some melancholy with Merça’s departure. It’s a somewhat selfish feeling, but it’s not nostalgia.

I even think that the memory of Mercearia São Pedro deserved a less degrading outcome – something possible only if the bar had closed a few years ago, without public washing of dirty linen.

The melancholy arises from the gradual disappearance of Vila Madalena that I knew and liked. The neighborhood is doing well, I’m the one getting old and tending to disappear too.

Enough whining, because I need to answer the question in the title of this text: for me, the old Vila Madalena survives in two establishments that maintain its vibrancy in old age.

One is the Martin Fierro restaurant, masterfully run by Argentinian Ana Massochi. I owe you a visit, eternally postponed due to the conditions of my purchasing power.

The other is the São Cristóvão bar. He left the unbearable Aspicuelta Street and went to a quieter corner, where Sabiá used to be. The food and football-themed atmosphere continues to be excellent, which is packed every night.

These are two places frequented for a long time by people who are now mature. Two examples that, in this sector of bars and restaurants, it is possible to age well – which was definitely not the case at Mercearia São Pedro.

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