The story below is from our January/February 2019 issue. For the full issue Subscribe today, view our FREE interactive digital edition or download our FREE iOS app!
Photos By John Park
This beloved establishment allows diners an international tasting adventure without ever leaving home.
Among the most popular of conventional wisdoms is the adage: Never go into business with friends or family. It is a saying the Amaral family–if they considered it at all–took and threw out the window.
Carlos Amaral began his foray into the restaurant world washing dishes in Boston. The native Brazilian worked his way up the food industry chain, moving through an array of jobs, cuisines and cities gaining business and chef experience. His route was circuitous, winding through Boston then across the Canadian border to Montreal and Toronto. Through all his meanderings, Carlos learned to cook a variety of international and American cuisines.
“He just worked and worked,” says his sister-in-law, Maggie Amaral, general manager of Carlos Brazilian International Cuisine. “I don’t know if he had a goal, but you know how life is. Life is life, you know, so you just make the best of it.”
Carlos may not have had a defined goal, but what he did have was ambition and–by the mid-1980s–plenty of international food experience. It was while visiting Brazilian friends in Roanoke, Carlos happened upon the idea of opening a restaurant of his own. He took the idea to his sister, Ilma, who lived in Toronto at the time (as did Carlos); and in 1989, the siblings opened Carlos Brazilian International Cuisine at 312 Market Street.
Maggie says by the time she and her husband, Ricardo (Carlos’ younger brother by a year) joined the business in 1996, Carlos and Ilma had worked out most of the kinks of introducing Brazilian food to Roanokers.
“I know it was hard for them at first,” says Maggie. “That is why we have an international menu.”
About the time Maggie and Ricardo moved to Roanoke, Ilma decided to move on. Ricardo, a professionally trained pastry chef, joined Carlos in the kitchen, while Maggie and Carlos’ wife, Eloiza, took on management roles. In 2002, the family re-located to its current hilltop perch in Southwest County.
Maggie says the original building had a dark, closed-in feel to it–the opposite of what the Amarals wanted to offer guests. They gutted the inside, replaced walls with windows and eventually built an addition–the curving dining space that features a wall of Valley views and a hearth-like cozy feel.
Carlos’ menu has changed very little since it opened. Customers have their favorites. If something goes missing, they notice and ask for it anyway. And, of course, the brothers always make it for them.
In fact, I think Carlos Brazilian Cuisine does a fantastic job with their menu. They allow diners the opportunity for international adventure without overwhelming them with options or hemming them into one particular style of cuisine.
When it comes to their Brazilian fare, Carlos offers customers the most classic of Brazilian dishes: frango baino (chicken), bife acebolado (Brazilian-style NY strip), feijoda (most classic Brazilian dish), as well as others; all served with black beans and rice on the side.
“In Brazil, everybody has to have black beans and rice,” explains Maggie. “It’s like our bread and butter.”
One area of the menu I think particularly shines is their apps. Carlos’ appetizer menu, while not large, offers delicious options, setting the customer up for a dynamic eating experience.
Take the lobster bites, for example. I would eat at Carlos for lobster bites alone. Maggie says this appetizer was actually customer-invented. Back when Carlos was still downtown, they had a customer come in who’d recently been to Washington D.C. While there, he had a delicious fried lobster dish and he wondered if Carlos could duplicate it. He explained the dish to Maggie, who then relayed it to Carlos. Carlos gave it a whirl, and voila! The customer loved it and lobster bites were born.
Beyond their Lobster Bites, Carlos has a complete bouquet of starters I would recommend. The cocktail sauce they serve with their jumbo shrimp cocktail is homemade; you can smell its clean tanginess before it ever hits your tongue. The baked brie is a classic, but the raspberry gives the otherwise heavy flavor a sweet buoyancy and added balance. The palmito gratinado is a creamy foray into Brazilian richness without weighing one down before dinner. And always check out the specials. Their appetizer offerings on the nightly specials menu are oftentimes my favorite (stuffed mushrooms, anyone?).
Maggie shuns the notion that families shouldn’t do business together. She thinks being a family business has helped Carlos become what it is today. After all, they consider their customers their family, too. It’s all a family affair.
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