“BotaSoho” is what the coverline in a local magazine called the historic Rio de Janeiro neighbourhood of Botafogo, a few months back. “No one calls it that,” laughs resident Andrea Capella. “It’s a long way from being Soho, either in New York or London. But things are changing.”
Andrea bought her flat here 14 years ago, but it’s only in the past two or three years that the affordable rents and convenient location have sparked a boom in new and interesting venues. The only part of the area most visitors see is the busy road by Botafogo beach (with fantastic views up to Sugarloaf), en route between the city centre and the more famous southern beaches.But new restaurants, delis, bookshops, bars, clubs and cultural centres are helping transform Botafogo into a neighbourhood worth exploring.
Comuna typifies the spirit of some of these young enterprises: it’s a bar, restaurant, exhibition space and publisher in a no-frills venue. “I think people are tired of the expensive and elite lifestyle in the postcard neighbourhoods of Ipanema, Copacabana and Leblon,” says co-founder Dudu Pedreira.
Andrea agrees: “Since Comuna, other initiatives have opened. There’s Templo, a co-working space, and Olabi, which runs everything from programming workshops for kids to bicycle repair classes, all free.”
Not everything is so altruistic: plenty of bars and cafes charge the sort of prices you might pay in the city’s more touristy areas. Imported wines, craft beers, cocktails and international cuisine are all a welcome – albeit expensive – change from the standard fare of cold beer and fried snacks.
Caverna serves burgers and cocktails to a rock’n’roll soundtrack, in a former mechanic’s workshop. Crazy Cats Bistrô is decked out with antiques and trinkets, while French restaurant La Villa has a more elegant look, inside a two-storey colonial house. All three opened in the past 12 months and are helping make Botafogo the city’s latest foodie hotspot.
Local chef Rafael Costa e Silva chose Botafogo to open Lasai last year, after leaving Michelin-starred restaurant Mugaritz, near San Sebastián in Spain’s Basque country. “In the end, Botafogo chose us, and I thank God we opened here,” he says, showing me around the high-ceilinged space, with its vertical garden and exposed brick. The cheap rent – a third of Leblon’s rates – means he can afford the best local, mostly organic, produce for his tasting menus.
Lasai joins half a dozen other restaurants on a tree-lined street of restored colonial mansions that dodged the wrecking ball that wiped out many historic buildings in some of Rio’s other neighbourhoods. The pioneer was Oui Oui, in 2010, whose owners’ most recent venture is Mira!, a sleek restaurant in the basement of Casa Daros at the Guanabara-bay end of Botafogo, a neoclassical building that was once an orphanage, and reopened last year after a £14m restoration to house the art collection of Swiss millionaire Ruth Schmidheiny.
Soho it might never be, but after decades as the in-betweener, Botafogo has at last got people to stay a while.
