[ad_1]
In the midst of a pandemic, next Wednesday, December 9, a new restaurant opens in Porto. The space where the oldest café in the city existed, between September 24, 1899 and Christmas 2018, was transformed into a Casa Guedes, the third of the Porto restoration group acquired by Vinicius Fraga, Leonardo Bevilacqua and António Rodrigues, businessmen linked to the Belmonte Botecos Chain, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
“At the end of the internal discussion, we decided to maintain openness in the midst of the pandemic to guarantee jobs,” Vinicius Fraga told Negócios.
“We are not going to fire anyone. We will keep the 60 employees that we currently have in both houses, which will now be diluted in all three,” explained the businessman.
In the third Casa Guedes, located in Rua Ator João Guedes, next to Praça de Carlos Alberto, the original concept of the original house will be replicated, such as the famous ham sandwich, but there will be some novelties – “Let’s rescue the coffee tradition in Bolsa do Progresso ”, underlined Vinicius Fraga.
Casa Guedes Progresso joins the two existing in Praça dos Poveiros, a few meters from each other, the original, which was managed since 1987 by the brothers César and Manuel Correia, and the most recent, inaugurated about a year ago, in a Three-story building.
It was in 2018 that the José Avillez group bought control (75%) of the Porto Cafeína group from the businessman Vasco Mourão, made up of restaurants such as Cafeína, Terra, Portarossa, Margherita or Casa Vasco, which would add the Café Progresso Building, where it intended to open a luxury restaurant.
The idea was to replicate the concept of Caffeine in the center of Porto. Installed in a charming 19th century house, in the prime area of Foz, Cafeína is the most international space of this group of restaurants, which Mourão bought back from Avillez last June.
But time passed, the pandemic arrived, without Caffeine Centro taking over the old Progresso, which had closed at the end of 2018.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do there, but it will no longer be Cafeína Centro. I have some proposals for the property. I recognize that I sold or rented it,” Vasco Mourão confided to Negócios at the end of last July.
A month later, the owner of the restaurant group Caffeine reached an agreement with the owners of Casa Guedes, to whom he rented the property.
“I was contacted at the end of August by one of Casa Guedes’ partners, which has an expansion project underway,” Mourão told Negócios at the time. “I am interested in having a tenant who realizes that he has a project that is going to be successful, and Casa Guedes is a very strong brand in Porto, which has many possibilities of success,” explained the businessman.
Vasco Mourão saw this leasing operation as a good solution in times of pandemic. “It is a sure way to minimize my risk, since we live in very uncertain times,” he concluded.
[ad_2]
