Oh well, another week or so goes by, how the hell did that happen? We’re working off a bit of a meat hangover here at Chez Geeque, because we met some good friends for dinner at the nearby Texas de Brazil in Schaumburg and ate a large quantity of delicious slow-roasted meat. We groaned contentedly when offered dessert, came home, watched Stargate: Universe and Numb3rs, and fell into bed.
This morning we both moved very, very slowly and tonight for dinner – vegetarian! But it was a wonderful meal, and the setting and serving style lent a great sense of occasion and even drama.
Our friend Jim from Utah was visiting with a friend nearby, and we thought this was a good excuse to get together with our local friends Jon and Amy, who are big fans of this Texas de Brazil and eat there pretty frequently. They recommended the place and we made our way there from several different directions.
Jim and his friend Michelle were coming from Madison and had the longest distance to travel, so we greeted them with a glad “Hurray! Let’s eat!” and got settled. Our servier was Fabiola, a favorite of Jon and Amy’s – she’s the greatest – and she told us how it works. There are little cards at each place, along with sets of tongs in addition to the usual table setting (including steak knives). Keep the red-bordered side of the card up, get salad and soup from one of the most impressive buffet bars I’ve ever seen, and when read for the meat, turn the card over.
Immediately, servers bearing charred flesh converge on the table. You can get something cooked to order, but everything is normally medium rare. They come over, offer some generous but not overwhelmingly large portion of tasty meat, and either they push it directly onto your plate from a sword-sized skewer, or they slice off a nice piece, which you grab with your tongs as they slice and place on your plate.
Oh. My. God.
This was some serious meat action. I was of course reminded of the infamous “Meatblock” task on Amazing Race years ago, which consisted of four pounds of meat, handed to you on a tray, that you had to eat. All of it. Or you took a penalty, which was light enough that most people calculated that they’d still get to the pitstop and check in early enough to beat people who decided to stick it out chewing on 4 pounds of meat and meatlike gristle.
However, our meat was all delicious and varied. I think my favorite was the garlic top sirloin, which had incredible flavor. However, the bacon-wrapped filet mignon was also very good, as was the leg of lamb, the flank steak, the parmesan chicken, the Brazilian sausage, and whatever that rolled-roast house special was. I’m sure the pork ribs and lamb chops were good too…
Thing was, I forgot to flip my card over, so these handsome fellows bearing swordsfull of roast meat kept coming over, and David would take an occasional slice because it was right next to him.
Fortunately, I managed not to disgrace myself by eating EVERYTHING offered to me. Just most of it.
We laughed and talked, and Jim and Michelle seemed to be enjoying themselves in spite of the decor, which looks pretty Satanic what with the blood red walls, flames, and skewered flesh now that I think of it. Fabiola was delightful and charming, and so I’m sure we’ll go back again and ask for her. Just not as often as Jon and Amy, because it’s more of an “occasion” type restaurant for us rather than a weekly or twice-monthly snap decision.
But oh yeah; handsome Brazilian men bringing me hot meat on sharp sticks: bring ’em on!
Locally (and in many other major metropoli), the Brazilian steakhouse of choice is Fogo de Chao, which is much as you describe here, save that they also serve wicked caipiranhas, which make the faboo salad bar and ungodly good meats truly spectacular.