In true Brazilian fashion, the Rodizio Grill at Trolley Square opened its doors this past week.
The first two nights of business, owner Ivan Utrera hosted everybody.The prime cuts of seasoned beef, the creamy fruit beverages, the Guarana drink, the polenta, even the tiramisu? All on the house.
Ivan invited everybody he could think of, including all the construction workers who built the restaurant and anyone who knew him back when he was a struggling college student, and if anyone tried to pay, he said the same thing they say in Rio: Your money's no good here.
Out on the pampas they call it a churrascaria, which essentially means "dining carnival-style."
Waiters dressed up as gauchos roam the tables, slicing beef, pork, chicken, turkey, even mahi mahi, and, if it's your birthday, they'll sing a chorus of parabens para voce. They'll sing it even if it's not your birthday.
Those "If it's not fun, don't do it" bumper stickers you see making the rounds lately? Imported from Brazil.
Like Terrell Davis, the food just keeps coming at you. As long as you keep the special menu indicator with the green side up, you are fair game, and if it looks like you're slowing down, the gauchos have a remedy for that: "Take smaller bites."
Utrera was born and raised in Sao Paulo. He came to America in 1984 to attend college, first at the University of Utah, where he was a janitor at the Union Building, and then at BYU, where he was a janitor at the girl's gym. Whether he was making progress or not, that's up to your personal opinion, but he did finally graduate, with an MBA from BYU, which launched him into his first foray in the restaurant game: making pizzas at Pizza Hut.
He often entertained Pepsico executives -- Pepsico is the parent company of Pizza Hut -- in Brazil and every time he asked them where they wanted to eat, they'd shout out, in tortured Portuguese, "the churrascaria," and off they'd go, zipping right past all the American tourists at the Pizza Hut.
"I never met one who didn't love it," says Utrera.
So he thought, "Why not?" and broke from Pepsico and chased his own American dream, which also happened to be his Brazilian dream. Who said you couldn't eat and have a good time at the same time?
He opened three Rodizio Grills in Denver and a fourth in Dallas before coming to Salt Lake City. The reason: too many Brazilians in Utah. Ivan wanted to first make sure the concept would be a hit with the non-Brazilian American population.
Too many ethnic food restaurants cater almost exclusively to expatriates. This way, when Carnival started, or the World Cup, he'd still have some customers.
Hardly any native Brazilians work at his Colorado and Texas Rodizios, but here in Salt Lake City, he merely stuck up signs on telephone poles that said, "Rodizio Grill, Trolley Square," and the next morning dozens of Brazilians were on his doorstep. Of his staff of 80, about half can give or take your order in fluent Portuguese.
So on the one side of the beef issue, there's Oprah. On the other side, there's the Rodizio Grill, which goes through a small herd of cows every month, including a few dozen brahma bulls (the hump is a house specialty).
Not that any of this would have gotten off the ground if it had been up to American finance. When Utrera tried to get stateside financing for a restaurant serving unlimited quantities of prime meat, they'd look at him in bewilderment and thunder, "What, no cheeseburgers!?"
He eventually went back home and got his funding, which means, in the face of all the tumultuous inflationary financial news coming out of Brazil these days, Ivan Utrera could actually help turn that tide . . . if he ever starts charging for meals.
Lee Benson accepts faxes at 801-237-2527 and e-mail at (lbenson@desnews.com). His column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday.