I Had a Feeling…

Over this past weekend we finally tried out the newest place in town – Flor Café. It had been described to me as being “chic” and unlike anything else in Maringá. The outside certainly had us intrigued. It is in a two story building on a corner with large windows around the front and side.

True to its name, Flor Café does have flowers. In fact, it is like a coffee shop slash home décor shop. Half of it has couches that I can only assume are for sitting, but they look a bit more like an upscale furniture store display. Surrounding this area is all kind of home décor gift items for sale as well as candy and flowers.

Although the service counter is filled with the typical pastel, empanada, fried snack selection that every single café I’ve ever been to in Brazil has, the rest of the menu is kind of nice. Lots of desserts and specialty coffees/hot chocolates. And get this! The sandwiches actually come with chips or a small salad!

This issue has been an ongoing point of discussion among my husband and I and we were surprised when the lack of a “side” was also mentioned by a visitor not long ago. When you order a sandwich here you just get the sandwich. Not that I enjoy eating lots of chips, but sometimes you just crave a little something else. We are so used to the whole ½ and ½ soup, salad, sandwich combos in the US it feels like something is missing when you just get a sandwich. Anyway, apparently you can get that something at Flor Café.

We did have dinner while there. We shared the mushroom bruschetta. My husband had the croque monsieur on which they went a bit crazy with the cheese. Is there even a sandwich under there?

Oh, that little swirl of orange with black specs in it, that’s maracujá. It tasted like they cooked it down into a reduction and crushed the seeds. That stuff is so amazing. I wished they had drizzled the whole plate!

I had the individual escondidinho de carne seca which is one of my favorite Brazilian dishes. It has been described as a Brazilian Shepherd’s pie with the top made of mandioca (yucca, manioc) instead of potato. This one came out wrapped like a gift. I have no idea why. Too keep warm? To make it fancy? I’m not quite sure.

So this is where it started.

I had a feeling with this being such a chic, modern establishment in the city that there would likely be English somewhere. The place does have a bit of international flair. When it came time for dessert, I got up to look at the cakes and pies at the counter. A waiter asked me (in Portuguese) if I had questions. I asked him about one of the cakes and he proceeded to describe each one to me.

He was about halfway through and he said, “Where are you from?”

And there it was.

Turns out he lived in Tampa for five years. Later he started a conversation with my husband, and, of course, apologized that his English wasn’t very good. Yeah right. I didn’t even noticed an accent and his use of the word “cool” gave away that he had been in the U.S. a while.

Always a small world around here. It's nice that we are continually meeting new, friendly people.
So as for Flor Café, a cool place for sure. I probably wouldn’t go back for dinner because it wasn’t exceptionally exciting and a bit overpriced, however, if I’m in the mood for a fancy coffee or hot chocolate I’ll be swinging back by.

I guess I should clarify that the dinner wasn’t overly exciting except for one item offered. I got a picture off the menu.

This is brie cheese baked in a pastry and served with honeycomb. How tasty is that? However, at R$52 on a menu of things costing R$20 or less it is quite a splurge.