In an unexpected twist that no one could have expected, one tiny ward of Old Panjim has suddenly exploded with brilliant restaurants, cafés and bars that are being justifiably hailed amongst the best in the country. There is a delicious twist, because the young entrepreneurs powering this new movement are almost all natives of the city, with deep roots in these same atmospheric streets overhung with gorgeous 19th century buildings. Ever since the pandemic lifted, and an unstoppable tsunami of demand was unleashed on India’s smallest state, there has been increasing hype – only somewhat justified – about Goa becoming a significant food capital for South Asia. But now there’s real evidence to justify that billing, which you can easily see for yourself in the narrow bylanes of São Tomé.
Make no mistake: the phenomenon is highly unusual. Lots of places boom and bust to the vagaries of tourism – just look at the grotesque bazaar overwhelming once-pristine Calangute and Baga – and many formerly sleepy neighborhoods have become “gentrified” from Bandra to Brooklyn. But there is something different happening in São Tomé, because most of the best new establishments are backed by locals with deep roots in these very streets, and as of now there has been negligible displacement. I can’t easily think of any parallel anywhere else in the world, but one useful comparison is to New Orleans - built in the exact same era – where the French Creoles are almost absent in its
new tourism avatar. Here it is not like that at all, because it is precisely our own who are setting up
the best establishments, and soaring high in every national ranking.
How did this happen in such a short period of time, in such singular fashion? Part of the reason is the physical structure of the neighborhood, which included the commercial “high street” of the oldest part of Panjim. Multiple storefronts used to house tiny commercial establishments that have become obsolete or underutilized over the decades since the city grew out in different directions, including the “business districts” of 18th June Road, and more recently Patto. In addition, the area was already home to some of our most beloved restaurants: the evergreen Venite with its lovely little streetside balconies, always-reliable Pakiza, and Chef Vasco Silveira’s superb Luso-Goan culinary landmark Horseshoe. More recently, Carlos Noronha and his sons have done an outstanding job at Caravela,
where an excellent menu is balanced by the best coffee in the state.
Looking back, the first tipping point for São Tomé was probably when Atish António Fernandes – quintessential Ponnjekar that he is – took over the nearly 100-year-old Joseph’s Bar, and installed the living legend “Gundu” behind the counter. Seemingly overnight, this tiny hole-in-the-wall taverna became hipster central, with young people flocking from around the country to hang out in the evening cool and drink proudly local cocktails and beers. It was an exquisitely timed moment, coinciding with the worldwide explosion of social media, and it became de rigueur to take selfies at this spot. The millennial generation flooded in there in huge droves that have never abated. I knew things had changed forever when some scions of erstwhile royal families eagerly asked me (we were in the Himalayas at the time) whether I too knew Gundu.
Another big moment for São Tomé happened when young chef Pablo Miranda opened the pocket-sized Makutsu next to Joseph’s Bar. For complex reasons that have yet to be analyzed properly, food became more central to people’s identities and consumer habits during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Goa simultaneously emerged as the object of almost universal aspirations, so the lens (and the stakes) became much more high-profile than ever before. That helps to explain why this almost unbelievably small and dimly-lit corner was instantly hailed – on its opening day itself – as “one of the hottest tables in India” and booked solid for its entire first month after the critic Roshni Bajaj Sanghvi gave it an unreservedly rave review in Conde Nast Traveller: “Most other places in Goa, even in India or other parts of the world, offer a catch-all menu, a sort of multi-cuisine Japanese, with perhaps some pan-Asian. In Japan, most tiny traditional establishments dedicate themselves to one type of preparation: sushi, tempura, udon, and so on, and then do it really, really, really well. In India, Makutsu has come closest to the yakitori-ya we tried in Shibuya and Shinjuku in late 2015.”
Makutsu – which is very close to Miranda’s first (and constantly rocking) establishment in the neighborhood, the Goa-meets-Mexico cantina Antonio’s @ 31 – also set the pattern for what truly distinguishes what’s underway in São Tomé, in that it was a son of the city garnering the attention. The chef is the latest savant in in one of Goa’s greatest creative dynasties: youngest son of the gifted architect and musician Lucio Miranda, and cousin of the peerless artist/illustrator Mario de Miranda. Last year, he told me that “These streets are filled with stories, and the other restaurateurs here are friends. We always look out for each other. The place has changed a lot over the years, and it may not be the Goa it was many years ago. But it is the Goa it is becoming, and if we cannot guide it in the right direction, then what kind of son of the soil would I be?”
I love that sense of commitment and purpose, and it has been extremely moving to see it reflected throughout the series of new restaurants making São Tomé one of the truly remarkable food and drinks destinations in the country. It is there at Casa Lusitana, the wonderfully hospitable landmark just up the road from Makutsu, lovingly tended by Anisha Hassan – her Hyderabadi Goan mother Doreen wrote Saffron and Pearls: A Memoir of Family, Friendship and Heirloom Hyderabadi Recipes, one of the best cookbooks on my shelves – and Vasco ‘Vasquito’ Alvares, whose late father Roberto is remembered as one of Panjim’s legendary bon vivants. The same strong connection to roots and responsibility radiates from the newest rock star establishments in São Tomé too: Larder + Folk – quite possibly the single best bakery/café in India – from Priyanka Sardessai (and Siddharth Sumitran), and the shockingly good shrine to French cooking that is Praça Prazeres, helmed by Cordon Bleu-trained
chef Ralph Prazeres and his wife Stacy Gracias.
There are other highly notable culinary developments in and around São Tomé: the surprisingly meticulous Italian fare at Casa Noni, the plant-based Greenr, consistently outstanding Mo’s Café, and new ambitious openings on the way from, amongst others, the local boy Chef Rahul ‘Picu’ Gomes Pereira as well as the South Goa transplant Donovan Vaz, who used to run the consensus best bar in the country Tesouro in Benaulim. Can all these establishments co-exist and even thrive in just a few little streets leading up from the Mandovi riverfront, while maintaining the peace and calm that the residents desire and deserve? Only time will tell, but for the moment this is one hugely significant collective success story that deserves to be celebrated.