Sunday, when the Beeronaut family arrived at the Fogo de Chão steakhouse in Naperville’s hotel/corporeta district, the restaurant had been open just 10 days. The front staff, and there are a lot of them, had no doubt been at “all hands” since opening, and were likely glad to be assured of a day off when the places closes for Super Bowl Sunday. Well, the manager said they were closing for the game, I assumed the rest.
The Brazilian steakhouse concept has been around for a while, but this is the first time we got to try one (disclosure: thanks to the Fogo’s PR people). From the experience of my background, I can only compare it to a Ponderosa Steakhouse that won the lottery and moved to a penthouse in São Paulo. The restaurant chain started in southern Brazil and has expended to several U.S. locations. It’s menu based on southern Brazilian cuisines, with meats roasted over fire, often with salt or garlic rubs. A prix-fixe lunch or dinner brings the meat right to your tables, presented by a succession of “gauchos” wearing boots and riding breeches. I guess the word “gaucho” (cowboy) is appropriate, since they are wrangling cows here, just in tasty finished form. Each gaucho presents a specific cut of meat on an impressive skewer, from which they’ll carve a small taste or a big chunk. Most meats are cooked so that you can get a rare or well-done piece from different sides of the same cut. Each guest has a coaster at their table with red and green side; once you turn the green side up, the gauchos will keep offering you meats until you flip back to red so you can “settle a bit.”
But let’s start a bit back here. Guests’ first stop is the Market Table, which evolved from a salad bar but without the shredded carrots. Instead there are some different kinds of salads, fresh fruits and vegetables, and a whole wheel of Parmesan hollowed out with chunks of cheese inside. I tried out a heart of palm for the first time – I make the effort as an example to the kids – it was okay, but I did not need to know where it had been all my life. Anyway, the Market Table is available by itself as a lighter or vegetarian option. It also has a charcuterie of salami and cheese, and a black bean and sausage stew over rice. At your table, you have baskets of cheesy bread puffs, and polenta fried up and French fry style.
Meats again. It’s hard to pick a favorite, as different cuts kept coming in. I was trying to keep each piece to a small taste, but it still added to a big chunk of carnes. Let’s start with their Picanha, a sirloin cut cooked with a layer of fat wrapped around it, from which they cut the meaty middle, crusted with salt and garlic. There are cuts of both top and bottom sirloin (Alcatra and Fraldinha), and a rib eye they called Beef Ancho. My teenager thought he wouldn’t care for anything that wasn’t bacon (and there’s some tasty candied, peppered bacon at the Market Table), but when offered a filet Mignon and a chicken breast wrapped in bacon, he decided things were okay. The meat parade included leg of lamb and lamb chops, Parmesan crust pork loin, pork rib, and a spicy pork sausage. There’s also a seafood selection that can be ordered separately.
But it is as a beer guy that I must offer one quibble. This is one of those upscale restaurants with a ten page wine list, drawn from three floor-to-ceiling bottle displays, but when you ask about their beer selection, they offer “Miller, Miller Lite, Bud, Bud Light…” This location does have Goose Island’s Green Line and 312 on tap. Many guides suggest the Green Line Pale Ale as a pair with spicy foods, but I spotted bottles of Xingu behind the bar and picked that instead. This is a black lager made in Brazil, slightly light in alcohol but quite malty, with overtones of fruit and coffee, which I thought contrasted better with the meat, especially the cuts with salt crusted on them. Just be sure to ask for any beer in a non-frosted glass.
Fogo de Chão is the kind of place to impress a prom date, or for a party with high-rolling carnivores. The Naperville location, at 1824 Abriter Court, joins two other Chicago area restarants, in Rosemont (5460 Park Place) and at River North (661 N. LaSalle Blvd.) The full “Churrasco” meal is $32.95 for lunch and $49.95 for dinner, with a Sunday lunch special of $35.95.
