New Macon restaurant, bakery serving Brazilian-inspired snacks opens

Jessica and Leandro Lacerda just opened a bakery and restaurant in Macon that’s based on a traditional Brazilian snack food.

Pingos — the namesake food for Mr. Pingo’s House at 3001 Vineville Ave. — are meat and cheese blends wrapped in a savory dough, breaded and fried.

“We’re trying to bring something different … to bring a sort of fusion between the Brazilian flavors and things that he’s familiar with and blended with some of the flavors that we as Americans appreciate,” Jessica Lacerda said.

Pingos are based on coxinha, a popular food in Brazil of chopped or shredded chicken meat, wrapped in dough and molded to look like a tear drop and then deep fried.

A fusion of flavors

“We call it the pingo because pingo is the Brazilian Portuguese word for like a droplet —like a droplet of water … and it’s just based on the shape,” she said.

The restaurant’s logo is a smiling pingo with a white chef’s hat.

“Some people call him a potato or dumpling,” Lacerda said. “But he’s not. He’s like a little droplet.”

They also modified the flavors of the traditional coxinha.

“The Brazilian ones are fairly bland in my opinion,” Lacerda said. “And so we modified them to be more tasty, more delicious, more as we think they should be, and I think in a lot of ways, they’ll be more suited for most Americans’ tastes, especially here.”

Jessica, a native of Macon, and Leandro, a native of Brazil, have been married about three years. A former branch office manager for a roofing supply distributor, Jessica manages the restaurant.

Leandro is the chef. He loves cooking and wanted to try something new. With a background in mechanical and electrical engineering, he worked for a paper company for about 25 years before coming to America.

“He loves food in a way that I’ve never seen anybody truly enjoy making food,” she said. “I love to cook but not like that.”

Her favorite pingo is made with sausage and cheese.

“It’s very absurdly simple, but it takes a special manufacturing process. He actually has a machine that was imported from Brazil that specifically makes these. It kind of stuffs the dough,” Lacerda said.

While the machine won’t run all the time, customers who happen into the small restaurant at the right time may see the machine in action.

“We have everything out in the open where people can see the process which is something that he really takes pride in,” she said.

Another favorite is the pingo that has cilantro, green onion and jalapeno mixed into cream cheese.

“When you bite into them, they are nice and crispy on the outside, and then the inside is just this hot cheesy mixture that is just, oh, so delicious,” Lacerda said. “All natural. No preservatives. All freshly made.”

‘Fill your plate’

The restaurant also offers a “fill your plate” option.

“A lot of working people come up and down Vineville and most people need and want a simple meat and two vegetables meal,” Lacerda said. “So, we’re going to have a little warmer that’s going to have up to 10 selections daily.

“It’s all fresh, and what he does is he takes things that we love — good ol’ Southern green beans, collards .. squash and things like that — and he blends the way they prepare them in Brazil with the way we prepare them here.”

The “fill your plate” option may be purchased as a small plate, a large plate or a to-go box. Soup and fresh bread also are available.

“Everything is made fresh. It’s not frozen food. It’s all seasoned naturally — you’ve got your garlic, your onion, other vegetables mixed into for seasoning,” Lacerda said. “God knows, we didn’t forget the bacon. That’s one of the ways it’s similar in Brazil and here in the South — almost, always bacon-seasoned everything.”

A meat option on the buffet might be a Brazilian meatloaf dish of seasoned meat and stuffed inside with cheese, bell peppers, sausage, bacon, all wrapped up and baked and typically covered in bacon.

“We’ve totally experimented over the last year with family and neighbors,” Lacerda said. “Everybody has absolutely loved it.”

The restaurant features “all sorts of different things” every day in two display counters, including one that serves up cold food.

Pork belly anyone?

Another specialty offering is pork belly cooked in a rotisserie with chicken on site.

“Most people who like bacon, pork belly is a thousand times better,” Lacerda said. “I’ve taken it to a few family events and the first time, everybody looked at it like it’s crazy. You want me to eat pork belly? What’s wrong with you? Then, they try it and they devour it.

“That’s one interesting thing that we have that I think is going to end up being especially popular because it’s absolutely amazing,” she said.

A tasty snack option is the cheese ball.

“This is basically a fried cheese ball that has an outer crust that’s still cheese. There’s no breading on it,” she said.

The restaurant also offers pastels, a dish similar to empanadas.

“But the difference is the dough,” Lacerda said. “We make our own dough. It is very, very crispy pastry dough and you fill it will all sorts of things

“I’m actually giving people the option that if you want to take something from the buffet warmer and just fill a pastel and make it, you can do that.”

The restaurant also offers a meal prep service that requires at least a 48 hour advance order.

“We can actually make your meals ahead of time for you. You come and you pickup and you’re good for the week,” Lacerda said.

Grand opening

At the grand opening Tuesday, samples of various menu options, including the pingos, were available.

Operating hours are 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

The restaurant’s signs aren’t up yet, but there are stickers on the windows of the blue and yellow building, including of Mr. Pingo. The building formerly housed a Subway restaurant.

“We’re in it 100%,” Lacerda said. “We tried to avoid doing any massive loans or anything to keep our overhead low.

“We put our entire everything, our entire lives into this right now. It’s scary. It’s a big jump, you know. But I feel like it’s the only way to do it.”

This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 5:00 AM.