nothin New Haven Gets Its First Churrascaria | New Haven Independent

New Haven Gets Its First Churrascaria

Meat Chef Cruz at work at downtown’s new Taste of Brazil.

Tiago Pavuna is very specific about his home country’s national cocktail: It requires one and a half limes, not one or two.

Pavuna hails from the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. There, as in other parts of that country, the cool and refreshing caipirinha is the drink of choice.

What is a caipirinha? It’s kind of like a mojito without the mint,” he said.

Pavuna is part owner of a recently opened Brazilian steakhouse called The Taste of Brazil across from the green at 135 Church St. Until a few months ago, the space was the home of Chicklets restaurant.

The Taste of Brazil will be the first churrascaria, or Brazilian barbecue restaurant, in New Haven. Pavanu said it also will be the first time that he and his partner are trying to introduce the concept in a downtown setting and beyond the borders of the Brazilian community.

Falling In Love

Tiago Pavuna with the staff, which right now include his mom Suely and dad Lucio who came from Brazil to help him for a few months.

Pavuna and business partner Linalva Coelho live in Philadelphia. Coehlo’s brother owns three Brazilian-style steakhouses in Connecticut, so they knew the concept could work.

Pavuna and Coehlo had originally come to New Haven with hopes of buying restaurant equipment from the former owner of Chicklets. Once they started talking to him and realized he was interested in selling his entire business, they were hooked.

I was in Philly, and it’s like three hours away, and I came and I saw the place,” he said. It was a beautiful restaurant here before. It was just a beautiful, beautiful place, and I just fell in love with the location and the city and everything. I started to get to know more about New Haven, and I found out that there was nothing like this around in the area.”

Chef “German” shows off one of the many colorful salads.

One way to think about The Taste of Brazil is to think of a scaled-back and casual Fogo De Chão, where servers come to your table with industrial-sized skewers loaded up with succulent cuts of grilled meat. They serve you again, and again, until you literally ask them to stop. At least during dinner.

The cornucopia at the salad bar.

During the lunch rush hours, diners are served in more of a buffet style. They walk up to a window to choose from a selection of 13 different cuts of beef, pork and lamb carved to order by the pound. They also can help themselves to the 15 to 20 different cold salads, and various hot bar sides such as rice, collard greens and plantains.

Letting The Food Work

Pavuna prefers a lime and a half because he said it makes for a juicier caipirinha, he explained while making the drink the other day.

After the limes, Pavuna added a couple teaspoons of sugar to a silver cocktail shaker. He used a wooden muddler to mash the sugar into the limes to extract and sweeten the juice simultaneously.

A chickpea salad.

He threw in a generous helping of ice.

You need lots of ice,” he said. Don’t save it on the ice.”

But a cocktail is a mocktail without spirits. So Pavuna reached for the Brazilian sister to rum known as cachaça, which he called the secret to making a true caipirinha. He gave the whole thing a vigorous shake. Poured into the tumbler, it was the perfect sweet complement to a sumptuous meal.

The hot sides bar.

Pavuna said he’s trying to deliver food that is as high-quality and healthy as one might expect in a high-end churrascaria, but at budget- friendly prices.

Don’t forget the Brazilian flan.

I really believe in my product, because we do everything with so much love,” he said. I really want to show people that they can have a very good and healthy meal, and not at an extravagant price. I already fell in love with New Haven, and I fell in love because I really believe in what I’m doing here. All I want is for people to come, and I want to have my food on their lips. That’s it. The rest, I think the food is going to do all the work.”

To listen to an accompanying interview, click on or download the audio above. WNHH radio’s Open for Business is sponsored by Frontier Communications. Frontier is proud to be Connecticut’s hometown provider of TV and internet for your home and business. Their phone number is 1.888.Frontier and their website is Frontier.com.

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