Rua dos Pinheiros has trendy restaurants and cafeterias full of construction workers

No gourmet empanadas or the trendy restaurant. On Rua dos Pinheiros, the most popular lunch spots during the week are bar and snack bars — mainly Guedes, on the corner of Antônio Bicudo street, and Lanchonete do Baianinho, at the meeting with Simão Álvares.

Those who fill the pubs are the people who work on the many works in progress in the region, which will soon become more buildings in the neighborhood. “They must be about 90% of our audience”, estimates Mauricio Otoni, attendant at Lanchonete do Baianinho. “The movement is even good, even with the pandemic.”

It is no exaggeration to say that the road has turned into a construction site in recent months. In its 1.5 kilometer extension, there are at least eight plots of land with fences, signs from developers or with buildings already under construction, in addition to sales stands for different real estate projects — the situation, by the way, is similar throughout the neighborhood.

The sound of drills and sledgehammers clashes with the profile that the street has gained in the last decade, when Rua dos Pinheiros established itself as a gastronomic hubO for bringing together some of the trendiest bars and restaurants in the capital — such as Bráz Elettrica, Le Jazz, Consulado da Bahia, Pirajá, Meats, Patties and Boteco Paramount, to name but a few.

But the charming setting of the well-known food court on a public road, made up mainly of small houses and buildings, gained visual and sound interventions with the new constructions. And the forecast is that this phase will last at least three years.

Construction companies and the pandemic are the main catalysts for changes in the road landscape and the closing of bars and restaurants. Many of the establishments that said goodbye to the public or closed down due to the pandemic crisis, such as Casa Carbone, at number 341, or were demolished to make way for the new buildings.

This is the case of places like Casa Switzerland, China In Box and Subway, which were neighbors and were located at 703. In place of the houses that hosted the restaurants, a sign announces a future development by the developer G.D8, that will occupy a good part of that block.

“Society changes and the developer goes after it to keep up with it”, says Daniel Ribeiro, CEO of G.D8. “Today, millennials prefer a smaller apartment closer to work than a big house in the suburbs,” he says. He explains that the Pinheiros street project will be a mixed-use building, with lots of greenery, an area dedicated to art (“for the city”) and an active façade, with space for restaurants. “The street already had this gourmet vocation and we want to keep it.”

João Sette Whitaker, professor of urban planning at USP’s Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism and former secretary of housing in the city, says that the public feels the escalation of verticalization in Pinheiros more because it is a more visited neighborhood, but that it occurs all over the capital.

This is a reflection of the Strategic Master Plan, a 2014 law that guides how and where will the capital develop until 2030. Created during the term of Fernando Haddad (PT), it underwent updates over the following administrations.

In short, the proposal is to encourage the use of public transport by offering cheaper properties in regions close to the subway or bus lanes, which should be built in places that need to be denser.

“With this, you authorize a much larger construction in a radius of 600 m from the subway or along the bus corridors”, explains Sette. The intention would be to balance the urban pendularity of the city — the displacement of the population to work in the southwest region. Pinheiros is surrounded by corridors and has the Fradique Coutinho station, on the yellow Metro line.

But the investments of the developers turned to creating ventures in already developed areas. “I don’t think they realized how violent this densification could be. These neighborhoods already have a harmony, a dynamic, and suddenly they’re going to lose it. Pinheiros tends to become Moema”, says Sette.

Despite the uncertainties regarding the future of the neighborhood, Daniel Ribeiro believes that Pinheiros will not become a new Berrini. He says that the new buildings were planned so that the region is always busy, whether with residents, restaurant audiences or company personnel. “I believe Pinheiros will be the best neighborhood in São Paulo,” he says. A similar phrase is read on the sidings of the works.

Five novelties in Rua dos Pinheiros

Cabana Burger

R. dos Pinheiros, 877, tel. (11) 2391-3939. Instagram @cabana.burger

Davo kitchen

R. dos Pinheiros, 448. davocozinha.com

Naked Coffee

R. dos Pinheiros, 404. Instagram @nakedcoffeebr

Purgatory

R. dos Pinheiros, 436, tel. (11) 3086-1200. Instagram @purgatorio_bar_restaurante

Tasty Salad Shop

R. dos Pinheiros, 570. Instagram @tastysaladshop