Walk through the glass doors under the Brasa sign on Canal Street and you’ll immediately get the sense that this isn’t your average steakhouse.
First, there’s the music, with lively refrains from South America setting a Latin tone. Then there are the lush plants in the entryway, a precursor to the tropical decor upstairs. An elevator brings guests directly into Edgar Caro and Antonio Mata’s 10,000-square-foot Brasa South American Steakhouse, four times the size of the original in Old Metairie.
The elegant restaurant from the Caro Mata Group opened March 20, and the space is unrecognizable from when it housed a local outpost of the Morton’s steakhouse chain. The partners removed a wall eclipsing a bank of windows overlooking Canal, filling the room with natural light and a sense of place.
The vibe is bright, airy and comfortable, with a central glass case filled with gorgeous wagyu tomahawk rib-eyes raised by Coastal Plains Meat Company in Eunice.
There’s a jewel box bar serving traditional and South American cocktails like pisco sours and caipirinhas. Mata curated a wine list heavy on South American and Spanish wines, with plenty of cabernets and malbecs from California also in the mix.
Caro and Mata are taking a giant leap from what they call their mom-and-pop operation. Besides the original Brasa, they own Zocalo and Basin Seafood & Spirits together. Caro also still has his first restaurant in Uptown, Baru, inspired by his grandmother’s cooking.
The partners are gambling on the downtown location bringing in both tourists and business travelers. Caesar’s casino is wrapping up its $325 million expansion project across the street, and there are large hotels on both sides of Canal Street, with the Four Seasons and the convention center a short walk upriver. The restaurant includes a private dining space for 80, with an on-site special event coordinator to facilitate that business.
“We think the location is fantastic,” Caro says.
Both Caro and Mata are self-taught chefs and hospitality entrepreneurs. A native of Colombia, Caro came to New Orleans for college, where he met Mata, who hails from El Salvador. The pair have been friends ever since. Mata is the numbers cruncher and systems guy in the partnership, although he’s often in the kitchen as well.
Brasa is an homage to the asado culture common in Colombia, Brazil and Argentina. The menu reflects open-fire cooking and dishes Caro remembers from childhood.
“In my country, when we have a party with friends or go to the countryside, we cook outdoors over wood fire,” Caro says. “The same in Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina. We wanted to showcase the cuts of steak that we love to eat.”
The entrana gruesa, is an 8-ounce hanger steak sourced from Creekstone Farms in Kansas. The 10-ounce Texas wagyu picanha is a signature steak served throughout South America, also called a coulotte or sirloin cap. The bife de chorizo is a sausage-shaped loin cut that is a cousin to the New York strip.
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There are traditional steak cuts on the menu too, including a thick center-cut filet and a 16-ounce dry aged rib-eye. The 42-ounce gaucho cut is Caro’s version of a cowboy steak, a big-ticket item at $200 that easily feeds four or five. Many of the other steaks are in the $40 range.
“We want to please our American customers,” Caro says.
There is more seafood on the menu here than in the Metairie Brasa. The seafood platter includes raw oysters, shrimp remoulade, crabmeat ravigote, lobster cocktail and tuna ceviche prepared Peruvian style with leche de tigre. There also is caviar service and marinated whole white anchovies, or boquerones. A grilled whole fish with fresh herbs is another option.
On the heartier side, the short rib mac and cheese is a signature dish. Twice a week, Caro’s mother Patricia makes empanadas filled with wagyu beef. Spiced veal sausage is served with chimichurri and Colombian red beans for a dish Caro calls “Colombia on a plate.”
There are riffs on Caesar and wedge salads, and sides that venture beyond the norm, like grilled carrots with goat cheese, honey and chili crisp, and roasted cauliflower with a feta crème. Potatoes come five ways, from al gratin in bechamel to salt baked with a creamy version of a traditional Colombian hogao sauce made with tomatoes, onions, scallions and spices.
“This is the food we eat in our countries,” Caro says. “It’s personal to us on so many levels. We wanted to bring this style of steakhouse to downtown New Orleans.”
