Brazilian steakhouse to open in spring
STAMFORD — Brazilian steakhouse Terra Gaucha is set to open in Stamford Town Center’s restaurant plaza in mid-May, the downtown mall announced Monday.
Terra Gaucha will take an approximately 8,000square-foot space in the restaurant row at 230 Tresser Blvd., that has stood vacant since the August 2020 closing of a Cheesecake Factory establishment. It will mark the business’ first location in Connecticut, complementing its existing Florida restaurants in Jacksonville and Tampa.
Stamford Town Center’s management first announced in November that Terra Gaucha would be opening at the mall.
“We are delighted to announce another wonderful restaurant that will deliver a truly authentic dining experience,” Stamford Town Center General Manager Dan Stolzenbach said in a statement. “Terra Gaucha will be a dining destination for the entire region, and we cannot wait for them to open their doors.”
The Terra menu will feature fire-roasted meats, fish and poultry prepared “churrasco-style” as well as “an expansive gourmet salad bar area,” according to the mall’s announcement.
“‘Churrasco’ or Brazilian Barbecue is a centuries-old tradition,” Rodolfo Melo, managing partner of Terra Gaucha, said in a statement. “In the hills of southern Brazil, gauchos — Brazilian cowboys — would roam the land and herd cattle. They would use natural wood charcoal and rock salt to season the skewered meat over open flame pits. Today, we use those same methods, roasting succulent cuts of beef, lamb, pork, poultry and seafood that are carved directly from skewers onto diners’ plates.”
Servers dressed in “colorful South American gaucho attire” will enhance the dining experience, Stamford Town Center and Terra Gaucha officials added.
“In addition to great food, Terra Gaucha employees are trained to deliver the ultimate guest experience,” Melo said. “Team members are extremely attentive, making sure each guest has a wonderful experience. The entire team works together, and managers are always available in the dining room working directly with guests.”
The new restaurant will include a full-service bar area with seating, four private dining spaces and a main dining area that “comfortably accommodates” 200 guests, according to the announcement. A 40-seat patio will be open during the warmer months.
Terra Gaucha will operate seven days a week, for lunch and dinner.
Puerto Vallarta, which operates several Mexican restaurants in the state, also plans to open in the spring in the restaurant plaza. It will take approximately 7,500 square feet in a space that has stood vacant for more than three years. A Rascal Flatts restaurant operated in that space from 2017 to 2018.
Next to the former Cheesecake Factory space is a Plan B Burger Bar. It has not operated since March 2020, and it is listed as “temporarily closed,” on the Plan B website.
“At this time, we do not believe Plan B will reopen,” Stolzenbach said in November. “We’ve had a good amount of interest in that space, though, so we are pursuing conversations with those prospective tenants.”
Stamford Town Center officials have also recently said that they are aiming to fill the vacancy created by the closing of a Kona Grill in 2019.
The other tenants in the restaurant plaza are pizza franchise Pieology, which opened in 2017; Peter Chang Restaurant, which serves Chinese fare and arrived in 2018; and The Capital Grille, which opened in 2007, the same year as the plaza’s debut.