Paulistano

We had tried out Paulistano when it first opened this Spring 2015 as a pastry/​coffee shop and aside from their sweets, had had samplings of meat and fried balls of meat and cheese. We liked it pretty well, so had promised to head back for a sit-​down lunch or dinner.
We finally had the chance to go back for dinner yesterday with Florentine friends who also wanted to this mix of Brazilian-​Italian cooking. We really didn’t know what to expect, so selected some cocktails to go with their trio of Brazilian snacks (which were fried balls of chicken, cod and shrimp, one of each) and their meatballs seasoned in beer with a spicy sauce (2 large meatballs). We divided up the two starters while I enjoyed a Caipiroska, made with maracuja and vodka — very good! Another friend had a Tic Tac, made with liquor 43 which was pretty good as well. The starters were tasty, the sauce wasn’t very spicy at all.
A friend got the Duck with mango sauce sprinkled with ground Brazilian coffee, another got the Rib stew with cassava and I went for the Picanha cheeseburger, which I asked and was told is a Brazilian cut of beef that contains fat to make it juicier. It certainly was that. We all sampled each others plates, they were all interesting combinations, particularly the mango with duck and coffee on top. Not knowing what to expect of Brazilian fare, I would say the flavors were not too exotic but they were tasty. Maybe I might have preferred a bit more flavor in the other dishes — my burger was actually very good, right size and perfectly juicy meat. The accompanying fries were not great so I ended up leaving over half.
We continued with dessert — from tiramisu to a carrot cake with dulce de leche and and caramel pie with coconut and a sampling of 3 types of brigadeiro, which are sweet balls with condensed milk as their base. The desserts were yummy and were a good compliment to the rest of the meal.
Being midweek, there weren’t that many patrons, service was speedy and very cordial, the cook Francesco came out several times to make sure everything was going well and to our satisfaction. I’d definitely like to head back and try lunch there in the future, it is very close to the San Lorenzo market area on Via Guelfa.