Weekend samba-ing is now possible in the Central West End and caipirinhas are available seven nights a week. Such are the benefits offered at Coco Luoco, now located at the northern end of the Euclid strip. Jorge Carvalho of the late Café Brasil in Rock Hill has set up shop in larger premises, minus the covered outdoor dining but with a separate bar.
St. Louis’ gradual introduction to Brazilian food seems to have been slow but successful, and we’re fond of it, a pleasant change of pace to the usual options. Lots of seafood, frequent emphasis on red meat and tasty vegetable treatments usually lead the way. But is that enough for success?
On a weeknight without music, the place sounded energetic, with overhead music plus the sounds from the bar where a television played what seemed to have been "Brazil’s Got Talent," or something similar. It was accompanied by lots of laughter, which was from real people at the bar. Most of the entrees include the house salad, generous but rather generic with iceberg and romaine lettuce, carrots, cheese and red onion, with a creamy vinaigrette and some deeply wan wedges of winter tomato. About three minutes after the salads arrived, there were our appetizers being served.
The Brazilian equivalent of empanadas, called pastels, are offered as beef, chicken or cheese. Large as a sixth-grader’s hands and deep-fried, the pastry, a little too chewy, held seasoned ground beef, pleasant enough, or a single layer of chewing-gum-like cheese seasoned with oregano, missing the mark altogether. But an order of mussels, described on the menu as "in a spicy red sauce" arrived open-faced and seemingly unsauced, turned out to be spicy after all. Sitting on a light paintbrush stripe of an orange-colored sauce, they had apparently each been daubed with some of the same mayonnaise-textured stuff, and were quite tasty, moist and flavor-forward.
From the churrasco section of the menu came an espeto misto, more or less a mixed grill, served off a sword-like skewer as churrasco sometimes is. Remarkably, the piece of chicken breast wrapped in bacon had remained remarkably moist and flavorful, thanks to its porcine coat and a deft hand with the kitchen’s timing. The sausage turned out to be a chunk of what was much like a thick, high-quality hot dog and a shrimp was a tad overcooked. Two chunks of beef, one described as filet, which was wrapped in bacon also, finished things off. One was cooked to medium, the other to medium rare, and while both were flavorful, both had considerable gristle and the non-filet, described as "Brazilian cut steak" was almost half fat. Alongside came beans, white rather than the promised red or the frequently-seen black, but extremely tasty, rice that looked run-of-the-mill but was considerably better seasoned than that, and some collard greens that were so flavorful, the accompanying vinaigrette sauce was superfluous. Farofa, the toasty sprinkle made from manioc flour, the same thing that’s used for tapioca pearls, a traditional accompaniment to these sides, was also on hand. And so were batons of carrot and celery as the vegetable side dish promised by the menu, but overshadowed by the other components.
Rather more exotic to the American ear is the bacalao Portugues. Please don’t panic at the phrase "salt cod." Cod is a lovely, mild fish, and properly cooked, salt cod isn’t the least bit salty. It’s very mild, perfect for the person who’s hesitant about exotics. This preparation, layering the fish with sliced potatoes and onions, drizzling it with olive oil and baking it in an individual pan, produced excellent results, the onion and fish flavoring the potato, little bits of crisp brown onion dancing around here and there, everything in harmony. More rice, collards, and the celery-carrot combo, came alongside.
Among the dessert options were two kinds of flan and tiramisu, but we opted for tres leches cake, something we can’t resist, because it’s one of those everyone’s-granny-made-it-differently dishes that offer infinite possibilities. This one, despite its problems, was one of the best. The cake itself was fairly dense, like pound cake. The square had obviously been cut quite some time ago and left to sit in the fridge because the corners were clearly drying out. And yet, that chewiness here and there, especially with the marshmallow-y frosting, just added another texture to the dessert. Moist and mellow, extremely tender where it wasn't chewy, it was smile-worthy.
There’s quite a cocktail menu here, beginning with the traditional Brazilian caipirinha, much like a real (read: not frozen and/or coming from a mix) daquiri. The caipirinhas we had were strong, sweet and lime-y, and we differ on whether they were too sweet. (In our experience, they’re always strong.) Served in faux-coconut shells, they’re worth a smile, too.
Our server suffered from not enough information, but we’re not sure how much of it was a language gap. Every question we asked about the menu sent him running back to the kitchen for an answer. A request for salad dressing on the side was acknowledged but lost somewhere along the way. And the question, "What’s for dessert?" brought us someone else to answer.
Coco Luoco Brasil
512 N. Euclid Ave.
314-367-1600
Dinner nightly, Brunch Sun.
Smoking: Yes
Entrees: $15-$20
Wheelchair access: Good