Restaurante da Quinta da Boa Vista

Between the modernist Burle Marx promenade lining the Copacabana beach and the Brazilian penchant for striving to be the country of the future, it’s easy to forget that Rio is rich with history. The centuries have seen the waxing and waning of an empire.

Take lunch amongst the costumed waiters of the retro Restaurante da Quinta da Boa Vista, on the edge of a vast green park – diffidently kept up throughout the years and fully enjoyed by leisurely park-stompers – to get a taste of what an empire come and gone looks like today.

The park was formerly a property belonging to the Jesuits from 1567 until 1749, when the order was expelled from the country. The land passed through several owners until it became the property of a successful Portuguese businessman, who built his manor amongst the mangroves and lagoons that dotted the area. Then came the upset of the Portuguese empire, when the royal family and approximately 15,0000 members of the court and servants fled the Napoleonic invasion of their country in 1807 and established the empire’s capital in the colony – that is, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Portuguese merchant donated the grounds to the Prince Regent Dom João as a moving-in present, and the royal family built on the property and made it the official residence of the family.

Unlike elsewhere in Latin America, the historical curiosity of having the royal court move to Brazil meant that Brazil did not fight a war of secession from its colonizer but instead gradually became independent when Dom Pedro I – who had come over with his royal family in the 1807 exodus – later refused to rejoin his family, who had returned to Portugal in 1822. The Quinta da Boa Vista remained the official residence of the monarchy from his declaration of independence through 1889, when a military coup led to the establishment of a Brazilian republic. Toward the end of the 19th century, the park got a facelift when the French horticulturist Auguste François Marie Glaziou was contracted to beautify the grounds for the imperial family.

The following decades would see the park and its once-manicured gardens go from riches to ruins. It has since been restored and is nowadays a fun-for-the-whole-family day-trip destination in a largely blue-collar neighborhood. The palace became a national museum. Swan boats, a noisy circus and an ascetic zoo are the main attractions, as is just enjoying Rio’s landscape without having to trek down to the beaches or botanical gardens of the city’s posh south zone. Couples make out and soccer scrimmages pound through the park’s grasses.

(About that zoo: It’s less impressive than its backstory. It was originally constructed in 1888 by the Barão de Drummond, a baron who tried to cultivate interest in the zoo by creating the accompanying bingo-like Jogo do Bicho, or Animal Game, in which animals corresponded with numbers. The zoo would fail and close down for a short period. But the game became extremely popular well outside the walls of the zoo – so much so, in fact, that authorities outlawed it. To this day, a bicheiro is synonymous with “Rio mobster.”)

Near the park’s northern corner, within walking distance of the zoo, sits the Restaurante do Quinta da Boa Vista. It’s a shotgun-style salon with glass-paned windows on all four sides, offering a wide menu of traditional Portuguese and Brazilian favorites while geese squawk and children screech in the surrounding park.

The menu includes heaping portions of Portuguese meat-and-potato favorites with enough Brazilian touches to remember whom the restaurant is feeding. The popular cabrito, goat marinated overnight in white wine, is served on Saturday; the rich, gamey meat tenderly falls about as you eat. In the spirit of avoiding the over-full Brazilian belly, or at least complementing that belly with some greens, we recommend the heaping Á moda da Quinta salad, with savory sun-dried tomatoes and buffalo’s milk cheese on greens. A partner in the restaurant, Ivan, said his favorite dish is the baked bacalhau (codfish) with broccoli and bell peppers.

In earlier times the building was a chapel, said Ivan, and slaves were kept in a basement area. Manila-colored walls, mustard tablecloths and a rusty red tile floor make diners feel like they’re in a dated photograph. The owners want you to drink up that retro feel: For the empire’s 200th anniversary, they celebrated by bringing in costumes for their staff. The upcoming edition is being designed by a carnavelesco, a designer who usually works for samba schools, and is based on two weeks of historical image study. The restaurant also celebrated the anniversary by instituting monogrammed napkins and seat covers, which, in a jovial historical twist, Portuguese tourists now take home as souvenirs. The empire has come and gone, but gastronomy here is far less fleeting than the heads of state who called this place their own.

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