Bem Bom served top restaurant title
I see it every time I go to Bem Bom. Over and over. Servers, bartenders and even Chef Chico Mendonça — whether outside, where hands may be shaken or hugs exchanged, or a quick salute from inside the small kitchen as he mans the many pots and pans — greeting guests as they arrive. Like old friends. Like family.
It’s part of the plan, he says, but it’s very natural here, an extension of the man at the stove.
“When you go into a Portuguese house,” Mendonça explains, “you knock on the door, you’re greeted, and if you’re a family member or a good friend, it’s right to the table in the kitchen — that’s the
Portuguese way. The refrigerator is opened. The liquor cabinet is opened. Or there’s wine. Or beer. And you sit down, and you eat, and you drink, and you talk.”
It is warm. Open. And this restaurant, with it’s rosy walls and colorful tiles and small bar — a chalkdrawn map of Mendonça’s native Azores in the entry — is the same way.
You come in, maybe you grab some tortilla chips or the popular bread service. You order a sangria or try some Portuguese wine. Bem Bom, which means “very good,” is an amalgam of Mendonça’s history — Portugal, Mexico, a little island vibe — and that shows up in the music and the menu.
Piri-piri chicken. Mangopainted fish tacos or a sublime truffled mushroom quesadilla.
Then there’s that lamb burger.
I could attach a thousand adjectives to this thing — grass-fed, house-ground, feta compote, a wonderful apple-ginger barbecue sauce and more . ... There are layers here one tastes individually. And magically, simultaneously. A mélange.
Once you try it yourself, though, nothing I’ve said will even mean a thing. You’ll just “get it.”
I’ve watched it happen right in front of me, like religious epiphany. For foodies.
Mendonça’s small legion of disciples are so devoted, in fact, that the chef is putting together a contingent for a trip to Azores, his native island of San Miguel and a few other stops, this summer. There is space for about 60, and it is filling up fast.
“It will be loose,” he says, “and we’re still figuring out the details. But there will be five or six events that we will set up. Locations and restaurants, wonderful places where everyone can experience the islands, but leave everyone time to enjoy what they want at their own pace, on their own terms.”
Bem Bom began life in 2012 as a food truck. In 2018, it became a restaurant. Now, it’s a burgeoning travel agency.
I kid, of course, but in bringing together all kinds of people, different, but with similarly warm, adventurous spirits, Mendonça is doing much the same thing he did on the truck, when customers lined up for things like quail egg-topped filet mignon sliders and made friends while waiting (because food like his takes a little more time than tacos and cheese fries).
He’s connecting people with food, the kinds of people who enjoy lingering, talking over a bottle and a bite and having an experience. A bem bom experience.
“You come in. It’s a little bit loud because we are small. There is music — sometimes Portuguese, sometimes Latin. We have beautiful Portuguese wine. Our people are going to take care of you and you’re going to feel as though you’ve traveled, like maybe you are even in Portugal. And then there is the food, all made here. Just like at your friend’s house. And they ask, ‘How is everything?’ ”
And you smile and say, “Ahhh. Bem bom.”