‘Jurassic Park’ burger in SP grows with pizzeria, ice cream shop and new dinosaurs

On the same day that Jurassic Park Burger Restaurant opened in São Paulo, in September of last year, all available reservations to visit the cafeteria until December of that year sold out. It was a sign that, to meet the demand, the house would need to grow – which finally happened, on the 12th, with the opening of a pizzeria and an ice cream shop in the same building as the hamburger.

That was always the intention, explains Renan Pizii, the venture’s creator. “The name Jurassic Park Burger Restaurant was given precisely because we already had the objective of expanding the space”, he says.

Pizii is also the director of Iron Studios, a luxury collectible toy company that made the dinosaur replicas scattered around the hamburger shop.

Now there are new reproductions of the animals, such as the tyrannosaurus rex from T-Rex Kingdom Pizza, an open space on the third floor that abuses references to the first film in the franchise, from 1993, directed by Steven Spielberg.

The replica attempts to repeat the success of the T. rex of the hamburger shop, on the ground floor, which steals the show with its approximately four meters high. The new one, more shy, just shows up – the statue, 1.70 m tall, is a reproduction of the animal’s head, surrounded by a bunch of plants, in a simulation of escape.

The objective seems to be to attract children and people who like to take unusual selfies – even Tiago Abravanel, the ex-BBB grandson of Silvio Santos, posed next to the big head. There are still frames from the film hanging on the walls and smaller replicas of dinosaurs, kept in transparent boxes.

Against the background, the menu is more restrained. Signed by chef Antonio Maiolica, with individual pizzas measuring 23 cm in diameter, the menu has no inventions like the hamburger restaurant, which serves themed dishes such as the Velociraptor Claw dessert, a chocolate filled with caramel that mimics the claw of a dinosaur. At the pizzeria, the flavors are traditional, with toppings such as Portuguese and four cheeses, which cost R$47 each.

Before, the objective was to take advantage of the upper floors of the building to open a Japanese restaurant and an Italian house, which even got to work, for just one month, in December. It didn’t take long for the decision to be overturned to create only movie-themed spaces full of dinosaurs.

On the second floor, the Ice Cream Shop changes the classic “Jurassic Park” to be inspired by the new “Jurassic World: Dominion”, which opened in theaters last Thursday (2).

In an interview with Sheet in September of last year, Pizii insisted that the hamburger shop was decorated only with references to the 1993 film. “You won’t see anything from ‘Jurassic World’ here, you won’t find Blue [uma personagem dos novos filmes]not a logo”, he said at the time. But things changed with the arrival of the new operations.

Now the place has a replica of Blue, a velociraptor that gains the air of a protagonist in the three “Jurassic World”. “The Ice Cream Shop is inspired by ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ for this moment. But that doesn’t mean we can’t change in the future”, comments Pizii.

According to the creator of the house, building the new locations was a process of “up and down”. He explains that it was necessary to reconcile his ideas with what Universal’s Brazilian and American units wanted, and also to take into account the wishes of Amblin Partners, Spielberg’s company, which also got involved in the project.

The ice cream shop should also receive a replica of a female dinosaur called Beta and a Dilophosauruswho appear in the new film.

The ice cream menu is also modest. There are only three flavors: chocolate, vanilla and banana, all sold at R$12 in the cone. The sundaes, which include syrup and side dishes, cost R$18. The promise is that, in the future, the menu will increase with milkshakes and other desserts.

Jurassic Park Burger Restaurant will grow again by the end of the year with the opening of a second-floor restaurant. The intention is to name the location Raptors Dining, which seems like a good opportunity to reference the iconic scene from the first film in which children are cornered by velociraptors in a kitchen.​

Visits no longer need to be scheduled – just get in line, any day of the week, from 12pm to 11pm.