In a letter that my father wrote to me when I was 3-years-old, he gave me a few dozen pointers on “how to get out of life all it has to offer.”
Over many decades, he has made this both his business and life goal, and as a result, he has become a highly respected connoisseur of the “good life.” With these credentials, I gladly accept his advice, and recommend that you do the same.
“I advise you,” Mr. Lang dictated, “to choose a restaurant early in life that will serve as your club. This will be your place, where you can feel at home without being at home, where the waiters and waitresses know your taste. You can…use your table to entertain friends or to meet enemies on your own territory – in short, it will become your domain, your natural habitat.”
The freshmen here have only been on campus for a few months now, which is not nearly enough time to develop a place to make enemies cringe (being one of these freshmen, I am in the same predicament). The upper classmen at SMU may have already found their homes away from home.
With both of these things in mind, allow me to suggest a “club” to freshman and upperclassmen: Café Brazil.
I suggest this with confidence, as the clientele frequenting the joint seem to be primarily of the SMU demographic. It is a hotspot for young students looking for a great bite to eat – and here’s the hook – twenty-four hours a day.
Café Brazil has won numerous awards from a variety of institutions. In this particular case, however, I would not rely on the awards it has gotten or the extravagant Web site that promotes them. Instead, I would base your opinion on the most reliable critique of all: the buzz. And, man, does it have a buzz.
Half of the students on campus are already die-hard supporters of the cause, while the other half have had it recommended to them enough times to want to go and try it out.
Although it was originally opened in 1991 as a small ten-table restaurant of the same theme, only now is Café Brazil gaining the cult following it deserves.
When I first visited the restaurant on a Tuesday at 2 a.m., the place was so packed that my four friends and I had to wait for a table.
This was fine with us, however, because even the aura of the place oozes with after-hours vibes – the food is only half of the package.
The chic modernist paintings adorning the walls give the place a bit of a trendy feel, which is rounded out by the crowd filling in the seats. Imagine, (forgive the reference) the Central Perk from “Friends” if, instead of six celebrities, there were a slew of SMU students.
That having been said, the food is superb. I would rather eat at Café Brazil than the plethora of mediocre moderately-priced restaurants all along Greenville.
The menu has three panels filled back and front with dishes ranging from a Brazilian beef sandwich (one of my favorites) to an honest-to-goodness New Orleans Mufaletta to French Toast. They have signature Tex-Mex favorites (quesadillas, nachos, tacos), French diner food (croque madame, croque monsieur), and a whole lot more that is certainly worth writing down – I just don’t have the space.
My panel of choice on the menu is their breakfast options that are available twenty-four hours a day and include anything you can think of that Americans normally eat before nine in the morning.
Thankfully, Café Brazil lives up to the high expectations they set for themselves with such a vast menu by making everything exceptional. One would expect that with the diversity they promote in their dishes they would compromise taste, but this is not the case.
I, for one, am perfectly content to call Caf̩ Brazil my new club Рthe atmosphere and food alike portray a definite sense of an after (or even before) hours hang out where an SMU student can easily relax and enjoy the end of his day or night.
Simon Lang is a freshman Business Admistration major and may be reached for comment at [email protected]
