When Fogo de Chao opens Downtown on Monday, diners can indulge in roasted prime sirloin, lamb chops, chicken marinated in beer and pork loin and ribs that are served on long skewers by chefs who slice the meats tableside.
It’s a churrascaria, Brazil’s version of a steakhouse, and it offers the chance to pick up some Portuguese on the side.
The chefs/servers are gauchos, picanha is the coveted prime part of the top sirloin, feijoada is black bean stew and pao de queijo is the name for those cheesy bread rolls. After a couple of orders, the word caipirinha, the classic Brazilian cocktail, just might roll off your tongue as easily as, say, margarita.
Founded in southern Brazil in 1979, the upscale steakhouse Fogo de Chao (pronounced FOGO-deh-shau) specializes in the churrasco cooking technique, in which meats are roasted over open flame and then carved at the table before the customer. Pittsburgh is the 52nd location of the restaurant chain, which has a presence in Brazil, Mexico, the U.S. and the Middle East.
The restaurant, which can seat 260, is at the former Saks Fifth Avenue site at Oliver Avenue and Smithfield Street, Downtown. Once your eyes sweep across the almost 10,000-square-foot space, they settle on the long Market Table at the center of the dining area. It features 40 to 60 items such as imported cheeses, cured meats, mixed salads, vegetables, fresh fruits, olives and smoked salmon.
Beyond the marble table are two hot stations — a carving station that features a pork shoulder roast with a citrus marinade that is open only for brunch and a feijoada bar that has all the fixings for a black bean stew. Originally made with leftover meats by slaves brought from Africa, the stew at Fogo is prepared by slowly cooking black beans with pork and seasoned with garlic and Tabasco sauce.
Other details that stand out is the bar area, stocked with the Brazilian rum cachaca, crafted cocktails and high-end spirits and liquors, a wine wall that fits 1,430 bottles, a hand-woven rope wall that represents the cattle farms of southern Brazil and a 12-foot bas-relief interpretation of Antonio Caringi’s famous statue, “O Lacador,” which personifies the gaucho (cowboy) culture of family, food and life.
On one side of the dining area is the open kitchen with the churrasqueria an 18-foot rotisserie-style grill that can reach temperatures of up to 700 degrees and spin five full rotations per minute, according to general manager Nic Kroge. Meats are seared in the first layer of the grill and the temperature is slowly progressed to cook the meat at a controlled rate in the second layer. The third layer is a holding area for meat. Water at the bottom of the grill helps to keep the meats moist until they are served.
The main dining area has an extension that can be cordoned off for private events. There also is an executive dining area and two private dining rooms that can be combined to form one large space. White tablecloths are paired with black napkins and the comfortable chairs have black leather, woven backs. Photographs of spurs, ropes, knives and other gaucho accessories adorn the walls of the restaurant.
The gauchos play a starring role at Fogo. Not only are they the butchers and chefs but also the servers. Twelve to 18 of them — spiffily dressed in pleated pants known as bombachas, shirts accented by a white lenco (scarf) and belts to keep the knives — go back and forth between cooking and attending the tables.
Carlos Girotto, 34, who was born in Porto Alegre, is one of the two gaucho managers in Pittsburgh. He previously worked at Fogo in Miami and Portland, Ore., and was most recently in Dubai.
“We need to know how to cook and how to interact with our guests,” says Mr. Girotto, who was inspired to become a gaucho after seeing his father cook. “We treat our guests as we would treat our family. It’s part of our culture.”
All the red meats, he says, are seasoned with just one ingredient — rock salt. While beef, lamb, pork and chicken are cooked on the grill, seafood is prepared in the regular kitchen.
Diners are given a disc that is green on one side, red on the other. Gauchos serve when the green side is up. If the diner wants to take a break from feasting, the disc can be flipped to red and then back to green again when the desire to eat resumes.
Fogo Pittsburgh offers a menu of different portions and all include access to the Market Table and Feijoada Bar. A Full Fogo Experience for dinner features an all-you-can-eat of 17 cuts of beef, lamb, pork and chicken for $48.95. For $39, the Brazilian Cuts option features 13 of the 17 cuts, and excludes filet mignon, lamb chops, beef ribs and rib eye. The Select Cut option is $29-$32 and features one cut of meat; the choices are fraldinha (the bottom sirloin), picanha, leg of lamb, center-cut pork and chicken breast.
Weekday lunch is $15 for just the Market Table and Feijoada Bar and $21-$24 if one of the Select Cut meats is added. Brunch is served on the weekends and includes braised beef rib hash, baked eggs with cheese rolls and sweet cornmeal cake with caramelized banana cream.
For an authentic churrascaria experience, order the premium cut of steak or grilled lamb, chicken or pork, a pour of caipirinha and hit the Feijoada Bar. Then flip the disc to green and let the feasting begin.
Arthi Subramaniam: asubramaniam@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1494 or on Twitter @arthisub.
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First Published: April 20, 2018, 1:00 p.m.