Oh! Lacerda

The Shop

When one pushes the dark wooden door to one side of the azulejo-tiled façade open, one enters an unexpected ambience, a refuge from the hustle and bustle of Avenida de Berna. Before moving to its present address, this restaurant operated in Parque José Maria Eugénio, on the site of the fairground that was to make way for Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Collection of Modern Art building. This whole story is told on the walls of the restaurant, in images from days gone by, but always featuring the same family.

O Cortador is the name of the family firm that has been handed down from generation to generation, and it is also the name of the famous steak. But Alfredo do Carmo Pinto, whose nickname was Lacerda, was called that name so often, that they re-baptised the restaurant under that name. During the O Cortador days, the steak was sliced in front of the customer directly from one of the cuts of meat that hung in the restaurant. The hooks displayed at the entrance are a reminder of that today, but the law since prohibits storing meat for human consumption in public that way.