Maksoud Plaza, which closed its doors, brought together artists and bohemians in the nights of the 1980s

A landmark in São Paulo, the Maksoud Plaza hotel ended its activities this Tuesday morning, the 7th, after 42 years of operation. The symbol of the São Paulo hotel industry was sold for R$ 132 million to the JSL logistics group, leaving 170 employees out of work and putting an end to an era of gastronomy in the capital.

Not only because, next to the hotel, Frank also closed its doors, considered one of the most important bars in the city, opened in 2015. The space, with its characteristic red armchairs, served drinks that elevated the bar. to the list of the best in the world pela World’s 50 Best Bars.

But even before Frank, Maksoud was known for its food and drink attractions. In 2016, the critic of sheet Josimar Melo wrote about what the address was like in the 1980s, when it was possible to bump into Caetano Veloso at one of the tables, smoke cigars surrounded by works by artists such as Yutaka Toyota and Maria Bonomi and enjoy 24-hour bars and restaurants in the hotel, such as 150 Night Club, the Trianon Piano Bar, the Brasserie Bela Vista, the Vikings and La Cuisine du Soleil, for example.

Not to mention the exquisite architecture, which received major cultural attractions, such as Frank Sinatra’s last performance in Brazil, in 1981.

Read the text by Josimar Melo below.

In the 1980s, at dawn, where would you go for a last drink if you wanted to be in a cosmopolitan environment? You, I don’t know; but I used to go to a hotel lobby: Maksoud Plaza, opened in 1979, with 24-hour service and breathtaking architecture.

Slumped in the relaxing armchairs, with the last glass of Cognac and a cigar in his hands, he could only tilt his head to see the gigantic sculpture of Yutaka Toyota dangling from that inverted concrete ditch; the shapes of Maria Bonomi carved into the walls; and imagine the vertigo of the panoramic elevators – all scenarios for innovations in gastronomy (and even in show-business) that the hotel brought to the city.

And if you knew someone from the hotel’s musical production, you could join the table at the late dinners of outside artists, which took place right there in the lobby, at the 24-hour Brasserie Bela Vista restaurant. Or, if he were friends with friends of Caetano Veloso, an inveterate night owl, he would swell, in the same place, the line of apostles from Bahia’s late supper after his shows (the only one at the table always without alcohol, yet always with the breath to pontificate on everything, in general with theories as curious as they are original).

But Maksoud wasn’t just dawn. And their nights did more than host, at the 150 Night Club, performances by icons like Frank Sinatra, Alberta Hunter, Bobby Short, in a space small enough that, say, Buddy Guy could step offstage and without interrupting his solo on guitar, came messing with the girl beside me.

The other side of Maksoud was made up of the highest quality food and drink. Leaving the lobby, descending the escalators, the late afternoon was already attracting serious drinkers to the classy Trianon Piano Bar: in a small space in the dim light, I remember listening to (preferably accompanied by) jazz and bossa-nova performed by musicians like the Peixoto brothers, brothers of Cauby.

To drink? Scotch whiskeys (not Paraguayan) and classic cocktails (from dry martini to the indispensable caipirinha) prepared with precision and elegance by bartenders without blemishes (like Rodrigues, whose gestures, between sly smiles of white teeth in the black frame of his face, I never tired of admiring ). The public? Guests who lived on the elegant side of the city right there; businessmen who met to take their scotch; and well, with the passage of time, also older clients with young escorts for the occasion.

Cocktails were for before or after eating: and it was also in the basement (for those who entered through the lobby) that people ate very well.

Of the hotel’s four restaurants (such as the rare Scandinavian Vikings, where the São Paulo bourgeoisie learned what the smorgasbord was, a table where marinated and smoked fish sparkled), the most eye-catching was La Cuisine du Soleil.

Old but comfortable, this one had the advice of chef Roger Vergé (1930-2015), who in his Moulin de Mougins, in southern France, was one of the icons of innovative nouvelle cuisine.

To Brasil Vergé sent the young chef Hubert Keller – who shortly afterwards went to São Francisco, where he would open the Fleur de Lys. For us Brazilians, nouvelle cuisine, still not well established even in France, was a topic of the moment; and it was with reverence that we saw that Frenchman turning to Brazilian products to try to offer French dishes lighter than usual.

Fish with light and translucent broths, tropical fruits composing purees that accompanied meats, vegetables cooked al dente, everything enchanted us, and it was worth the savings to spend there – although it was never enough, in my case, to afford the fantastic wines that the letter offered. For a long time, the restaurant became a meeting point for the then nascent gastronomic brotherhoods, which gathered there to taste wines with good company on the plate.