In Brighton, authentic Brazilian, with a big helping of hospitality
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Type: Brazilian
Hours: Mon.-Tues. 11:30 a.m.- 10 p.m.; Fri.-Sat. 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m.; Sun. 12-9:30 p.m.
Good choices: Linguica, Minas especial, Brazil 2001, rabada, frango com quiabo, lombinho gaucho, pudim, arroz doce, torta abacaxi, torta de chocolate.
Credit cards: All major credit cards.
Access: One step at front door.
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CAFE BRAZIL
421 Cambridge Street, Brighton
(617) 789-5980
Restaurant reviewed 08/06/98 by Sheryl Julian
In 1969, Valter Vitorino came here from Conselheiro-Pena in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and, he says, ``I'm the first one from my hometown.'' Since then, Vitorino says, many thousands more have come to Boston from his town and neighboring Governador Valadares. So it's no surprise that Cafe Brazil, Vitorino's 11-year-old storefront, is hopping. Cafe Brazil could be a restaurant in another time on another continent. There's live bossa nova music, with a little Frank Sinatra thrown in. But it's not just the authenticity of the food or the Brazilian jazz. The waiters and waitresses welcome you as if you're in their home. Vitorino, too, a dead ringer for Peter Sellers, almost fawns over customers. He learned how to run a dining room at one of the best rooms in town. He spent six years in the Julien restaurant in the Meridien Hotel, eventually as its captain, and he brings that graciousness to his own house. To the Brazilian community, he offers what he calls ``very home cooking,'' beginning with arroz e feijao, white rice and stewed black turtle beans. ``In Brazil,'' he says, ``everything is rice and beans.'' Many Cafe Brazil dishes arrive on a sizzle platter, which, when brought through the dining room, smells and looks so inviting, you're tempted to just order what the next table is getting. We began with irresistible linguica ($4.95), a spicy Portuguese sausage that is deep fried and served only with lemon juice. Taste one of these morsels and you'll work your way through the whole plate; it doesn't matter what the doctor said about fat. Tira gostas, deep fried savory pastires ($1 each), are mouthfuls of ground beef with olives, chicken with olives, or ground beef with wheat. These have a slightly sticky quality that appears again in other dishes. But this is part of the cuisine, as is a mealy feijao tropeiro, cassava meal mixed with black beans, bacon, eggs, and onion, which is a classic accompaniment. Cassava meal is also known as mandioca (the ``dio'' is prononounced as ``jo''). Mandioca is a root vegetable that grows in Central and South America, and it's an acquired taste. ``It's like the potato in this country,'' says Vitorino. Feijao is part of Brazil 2001 ($9.95), which combines fried chicken, pork, sausage, and a thin slice of beef, garnished with fried banana and Brazilian sauteed cabbage. ``This is a creation of ours,'' says Vitorino. It combines many elements found in a typical Minas meal. ``It's very popular from Day One.'' Portuguese food as many Bostonians know it has its origins in the Azores, off mainland Portugal. That cooking is loosely related to food from Brazil. Cafe Brazil's food is quite underseasoned, aside from dishes that have spiciness because of sausage. I wanted more zing - and at least more salt. Then, when rabada ($10.95) arrived, a long simmered stew of bony oxtail and vegetables, I saw how something truly simple, cooked forever, could celebrate the taste of the ingredients with little other seasoning. It's described as heavenly - and it is. Minas especial arrives on a sizzle platter, tender pieces of chicken with sauteed cabbage and fried banana in an appealing dish. Frango com quiabo ($10.95), a weekend special, is a kind of gumbo, which combines okra and potatoes, served with angu, a firm, very tender form of polenta. Lombinho gaucho ($9.95) offers tender grilled pork loin with the traditional accompaniments of white rice, sauteed cabbage, and farofa, another cassava meal dish. Vitorino's cooks make four desserts ($2.50-$2.95), including a dreamy cup of arroz doce, a rice pudding; a beautiful pudim, the Brazilian version of flan, and torta abacaxi, pineapple and coconut tart smothered in whipped cream. The torta de chocolate, or chocolate tart, is one of the few things on the menu that doesn't really come from Brazil. ``We made it up,'' says Vitorino. ``But we're very rich in cocoa.'' That charm makes the difference.
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