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Feature
The Mission: SubAstor showcases best of Brazil
Inspired by the nature found on their travels to Brazil’s six biomes, the bar team at São Paulo’s SubAstor create stunning menus.
*This feature was originally published in the August 2024 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
Did you know Brazil is home to six biomes? The most famous of these, undoubtedly, is the Amazon, a complex patchwork of ecosystems comprising tropical forests, flooded planes, meadows, pasture areas, mountain refuges and ancient formations. The remaining five are Cerrado, Caatinga, Atlantic Forest, Pantanal, and Pampa.
These six vast and rich areas of flora and fauna inspired the most recent cocktail menu by the team at SubAstor in São Paulo, Brazil. The latest drinks list is the sixth edition of the bar’s Biomes of Brazil initiative. And what better way to grasp the concept than to join the team there for a three-day exploration, dubbed The Mission.
The Mission is no ordinary bartender trip. Created by SubAstor’s director, Fabio La Pietra (pictured, left), in 2018, The Mission is an expedition that aims to immerse guests in the extensive biodiversity of Brazil. It’s a unique opportunity to forage and discover various fruit and vegetables, and to work with flavours not available in other countries. It begins in the bustling capital of São Paulo.
The city streets can be hilly, but often have one thing in common: botecos. These no-frills bars can be found on most corners, ranging from large spaces with live music to small, simple hole-in-the-wall serving stations. They are the cornerstone of drinking in the city, and throughout Brazil. “Botecos are really a staple for Brazilians,” says La Pietra.
Dark drinking den
However, the experience at SubAstor could not be more different. This subterranean speakeasy sits below the bar and restaurant Bar Astor. Vintage-style artwork adorns the walls, conjuring 1920s-American vibes. But venture downstairs and discover a dark drinking den, clad with contrasting red walls and punctuated with neon accents, while hip-hop classics play. It’s cool and comfortable, with drinks that balance Brazilian and international influences.
On the previous menu, there were 12 cocktails, and each featured two ingredients from a particular biome. “Now, we’ve swapped the layout and we’ve made one drink for each biome, with the idea of changing according to the ingredients we can access,” La Pietra explains.
The remainder of the menu includes classic serves or “immortal drinks” from previous menus. On the new list, concoctions include Amazônia, created using gin, amaro bianco, guava nectar, falernum, rhubarb, chlorophyll, and mastruz butter.
There is also Pantanal, which combines awamori, sake, camomile, sweet potato, Champagne acid, pequi (an aromatic, citrusy fruit from the Pantanal biome), and tomato water. Pantanal is also the hardest biome to work with, La Pietra says, because of its distance and high altitude.
“The most complicated thing when creating the menu is logistics because Brazil is a big country,” he says. “The best thing we could do is talk to the producer. If you go through a big supplier, you wouldn’t get the same ingredients. So this idea came slowly, with a little bit of creative obsession.”
Caatinga, La Pietra explains, is a very dry area in the north of Brazil. The key ingredient in its namesake cocktail is babaçu, which La Pietra says is “like a small coconut, quite oily”, and adds a silky texture to the drink. The team has paired the oil with Sherry, amaro rosato, amaro cola, and blackberry vinegar.
Months of research
The SubAstor bar team spend months researching the flavour and knowledge of biomes. It is aided by the venue’s relationship with Jorge Ferreira, a parabotanist and flora expert, who appeared on the first series of TV show Chef’s Table. Ferreira has worked with SubAstor for years, and shares his discoveries of new botanicals, plants and their different uses with La Pietra and the bar team, which are then incorporated into the cocktails.
Joined by the founders of Peruvian bar Lady Bee, Gabi León and Alonso Palomino, the 2024 Mission departed São Paulo for Camburi, where the group followed Ferreira into the forest, past waterfalls, while touching, smelling and tasting plants along the way. The trip is feeding La Pietra and his team’s creativity, and inspiring the next menu, which La Pietra says will “probably be in about nine months”, next April.
“We woke up during this trip and we realised that we’ve never used the long pepper yet,” he notes, recalling one of the dozens of ingredients picked and sampled during the expedition with Ferreira.
“We’ve been focusing on cambuci,” an ingredient used in the Mata Atlântica cocktail, “because of the versatility. And also because [long pepper] might have scared customers. But this is not a limit,” La Pietra continues. “I was trying to find the middle between logic and magic. It comes down to how much can I push and take a risk, and how comfortable can we be with these recipes.”
The Mission is always, first and foremost, about the biomes, La Pietra says. However, showcasing Brazil’s cultural diversity is also important. As Italian La Pietra explains: “This is another part of the proposed inspiration that we used a lot. It is not only Brazilian ingredients, but it’s about how many cultures are around Brazil. When I first moved to Brazil and at the bar, I didn’t only see Brazil; I saw Asian, Italian, Black people, locals, people from the countryside, and I had a clear view of what it could be.”
Pivotal role
SubAstor celebrated its 15th anniversary in June 2024. It was one of the first cocktail bars in São Paulo, and has played a pivotal role in shining a spotlight on Latin American hospitality. Given the bar’s focus on biodiversity, it is no surprise that sustainability is also important. This year’s Mission, therefore, also headed via boat to the sandy shores of Ilha Bela, home of Projector A.Mar. This endeavours to create awareness around artisanal fishing and the preservation of the Atlantic coast.
“The Mission is our opportunity to share with bartenders around the world the diversity and creativeness that we can do using these local ingredients here in Brazil,” La Pietra says. The Lady Bee team channelled their learnings into their takeover on the final night of The Mission at SubAstor, where they incorporated fresh ingredients picked from the forest into their drinks.
La Pietra says: “There is so much history, flavour, talent in this bar scene, so many incredible ingredients and flavours to discover in Brazil. Our goal is to share those ingredients, those ideas, those moments of inspiration with the world, and show people what Brazilian cocktail-making is all about.”
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