Gero turns 30 and still has a loyal audience, ranging from 18 to 90

While drinking coffee and browsing through the pages of the French newspaper Le Monde on the balcony of the mansion where the family’s now classic restaurant was located, Gero Fasano, still 32 years old, suddenly had his eyes stolen from reading.

The view from a building on the other side of Haddock Lobo Street, in Jardins, was like a ray of light on a dark night. The building could easily be transformed into a bistro à côté, a more informal version of a Michelin-starred restaurant, a new trend that was just beginning to emerge in Paris, as I had just read.

The building he coveted housed a sort of secondary kitchen for the legendary Gallery nightclub, the hottest spot in the city between the 1980s and part of the 1990s. Word was widely spread in the area that it was about to become a cigar shop.

Great-grandson of Vittorio, grandson of Ruggero and son of Fabrizio Fasano, characters who marked the scene and history of Italian haute cuisine in São Paulo, Gero did not hesitate: building number 1,629 would house a more informal version of Fasano, even if he had to beg and even shed tears to convince the owner. And so it was, according to Gero Fasano himself, when recalling the birth, 30 years ago, of the bistro à côté that would bear his name.

The property was rented and the next step was to transform it into a restaurant.

Gero invited Mexican Aurélio Martinez Flores (1929-2015) to lead the project. He was the owner of an architecture with pure and simple lines, without being simplistic, with few elements, but rich in quality and detail.

The two then traveled to New York. There, they visited art galleries in Soho, the industrial neighborhood of Manhattan that was already hipster at the time, which is where the inspiration for the restaurant’s innovative project came from.

Back in São Paulo, they bought a batch of gigantic bricks, 150 years old, from the demolition of an old factory belonging to Matarazzo, one of the pioneering families of national industrialization.

With a modern and bold appearance to this day, the work took about eight months to complete. All the ambiance, lighting and layout, for example, were created by Gero himself. “I have my hand in everything. There is nothing that doesn’t pass my approval.”

Since its opening in 1994, Gero has been a gastronomic landmark in São Paulo. Until then, there was no restaurant that represented the cuisine of the northern Italian region, except for that served in classic restaurants.

Thus, from its opening, it gained a clientele that would become captive, and they began to frequent the “elegant Milanese trattoria”, as defined by the owner and restaurateur.

With tables outside, the column-free restaurant can be described as a kind of cantina version of its formal “brother” — in this case, Fasano.

On the menu, the fresh pasta has always mixed traditional formulas with more innovative ones. Two or three years after opening, the restaurant began to have “the most copied menu in São Paulo”, in Gero’s words.

“The risottos were the most copied,” he says. He continues: “Fasano wins for excellence, while Gero wins for excellence, for its vibe and for being eclectic.”

The intimate dining room with an open bar is usually popular with people aged 18 to 90. With a sharp team of 75 employees, it is also a place to see and be seen. It is always packed. At lunch or dinner, it is common to see executives closing deals at the table.

Gero is the busiest restaurant in the Fasano Group. Almost 200 couverts are served daily. The restaurant consumes 4,000 kg of zucchini alone, which is served in dishes and as chips as an appetizer, per year.

Under the almost obsessive supervision of the restaurateur, there are classics such as ossobuco with saffron risotto (R$226), buffalo mozzarella ravioloni in tomato sauce (R$145), and cotoletta alla milanese (breaded veal cutlet, R$227). Risottos? There are nine. Just thinking about the pumpkin and shrimp one (R$232) makes your mouth water.

Some items have been on the menu since opening, such as the caprese salad (R$99) and the veal ravioli with mushroom cream (R$186).

Regardless of your choice, it’s worth trying starters like the green salad with asparagus and grilled squid (R$99). To pair with your meal, there’s a generous wine list of 200 labels, mostly from great Italian châteaux and producers.

From Monday to Friday (except holidays), the “mezzogiorno” (executive menu) costs R$195, with starter, main course and dessert, all of them with classic suggestions. On average, 750 of these are served per month. Contrary to what we usually see in other trendy restaurants in the city, the options are faithful to the tradition and essence of the restaurant.

There is no garlic in the kitchen. “If I find a head of garlic in the restaurant, the chef will be fired,” he warns.

A master of his own rules and full of fixed ideas, Gero recalls that he did not accept a suggestion from the architect born in Puebla and based in Brazil who wanted to paint the interior of the restaurant white — that is, to paint over the old and historic bricks. “I did not give in, just as I do not give in to any architect,” he says.

Result: in the 48th minute of the second half, Aurélio Martinez Flores gave up on going to the opening, says the restaurateur, for whom Gero “is timeless and elegant today as it will be in 50 years”. He pauses briefly and adds with a slight taste of victory: “If it had been painted white, it wouldn’t have lasted ten years”.

I generate

R. Haddock Lobo, 1.629, Jardins, west region, @fasano