Restaurant D’Praça, by Grupo BFW, opens in a historic Ipanema townhouse after restoration that preserves the legacy of Casa de Dona Chiquita.
1930s townhouse enters new phase
The Grupo BFW is launching its new gastronomic project, restaurant D’Praça, in a restored historic townhouse in Ipanema. The property is located at Rua Barão da Torre, 358, one of the neighborhood’s most emblematic addresses and part of Ipanema’s protected Cultural Site.
Built in the 1930s for Carmen Mota de Lima, the house was for decades the residence of Francisca Cunha de Lima, known as Dona Chiquita. Now fully restored, the address is ready to host D’Praça, whose opening is scheduled for December 12.
Preserved memory and emotional atmosphere
The house has kept a close connection with Praça Nossa Senhora da Paz for almost a century and now preserves original features such as stained glass, floors, woodwork and the central staircase. In this way, the restoration maintains the intimate relationship between the property and Ipanema’s history.
The townhouse’s story is intertwined with the development of the neighborhood as an urban space. Dona Chiquita, born in Matias Barbosa and known for her generosity, turned number 358 into a welcoming reference point for the local community.
Her cooking, rooted in Minas Gerais traditions and Italian influences, attracted relatives and friends from the area. As a result, visitors always found a ready meal, a gesture of hospitality or simple affection, reinforcing the familiar spirit of the address.
Architecture in dialogue with time
The architectural project for D’Praça chose not to impose the new over the old, but to create dialogue between different eras. Original proportions, textures and materials guided the interventions, which sought to preserve the atmosphere that has long defined the house.
Scenography and interior design reinforce this sense of continuity. Lighting, objects, materials and circulation paths were planned so that visitors move naturally between memory and contemporaneity throughout the spaces.
The restaurant unfolds over different levels, with dining rooms that retain the domestic feel of the former residence. In addition, it offers two bars and a terrace facing Praça Nossa Senhora da Paz, where guests can watch everyday neighborhood life.
Emotional cuisine and free-form experience
Integration with Grand Cru, a wine store that offers more than eight thousand labels with no corkage fee, adds another layer to the project. Thus, guests can build their own experience, in tune with the informal and welcoming spirit of the house.
The menu, curated by Grupo BFW, presents contemporary cuisine with an emotional foundation. It privileges quality ingredients and precise techniques, while avoiding excess, and focuses instead on flavor, lightness and meaning in each dish.
Service follows the same approach, guided by attentive listening and sensitivity. Therefore, the team seeks to adapt to each guest’s pace, offering comfort and presence without unnecessary interference in the dining experience.
D’Praça as a living legacy
D’Praça appears as a continuation of the relationship between architecture, neighborhood, gastronomy and memory that has always marked the Barão da Torre townhouse. Rather than erasing the past, the restaurant resumes this legacy as the foundation of its identity.
Once it opens daily from December 12, the space will stand as more than just a new restaurant in Ipanema. Instead, it returns a historic address to the city, renewed yet still recognizable to those who have always seen it as a living part of the neighborhood.