The City Tours Are Amazing: Shopping Iguatemi

Thursday, 2 February 2012

São Paulo hotels and restaurants for high-rollers: top addresses

adword February 02, 2012 Add Comment

By Alexandra Forbes

Although the bustling city of 19 million has long reigned as Brazil’s gastronomic and shopping meca, for years its restaurants remained an insider’s secret, as tourists preferred the sunnier and more laid-back cities to the North, such as Rio or Salvador. No more: the recent economic boom has drawn attention to the increasingly opulent metropolis boasting world-class restaurants, shops and hotels.

D.O.M. restaurant

RESTAURANTS

For seasoned foodies, no visit to São Paulo is complete without a visit to Maní (www.manimanioca.com.br) and D.O.M. (www.domrestaurante.com.br), restaurants which, in very novel ways, give little-known Brazilian ingredients a new guise.

Just as importantly, paulistanos (as São Paulo natives are referred to) saw their long-lived infatuation with sushi take flight: today, there are an eye-popping 600 Japanese restaurants in town. At the city’s premium Japanese restaurants, dish presentation and raw fish quality rival the best in Japan. Competing for the title of best sushiman in São Paulo are Jun Sakamoto (no website, tel. 55-11-3088-6019) – cerebral, temperamental, traditionalist, owner of the celebrated eponymous restaurant – and Tsuyoshi Murakami, a born showman whose wildly creative and artfully presented tasting menus served at Kinoshita (www.kinoshita.com.br) dazzle locals and tourists alike.

Fasano restaurant

HOTELS

A great luxury hotel is one thing, but one where there are almost always well-known figures of the local business and arts crowds milling around the lobby at happy hour, drink in hand? Only at the Fasano (www.fasano.com.br) , to be sure, the most glamorous of the city’s growing number of five stars. It also holds the title of hotel with the best piano bar (where even big stars like Caetano Veloso have sung) and the poshest Italian restaurant in town (also called Fasano).

Worthiest competitors include the design-driven Emiliano (www.emiliano.com.br), a mere four blocks away – with rooftop pool, spa and helipad – and the Grand Hyatt (http://saopaulo.grand.hyatt.com) , favoured by the business crowd, located in the modern, office-tower-heavy Berrini district.

Shopping Cidade Jardim

BOUTIQUES - SHOPPING

It’s amazing how many new shopping centers pop up each year in the city, such as the Vila Olímpia, opened in 2010. The granddaddy of them all, the Shopping Iguatemi (www.iguatemisaopaulo.com.br), is going as strong as ever: it houses the Tiffany flagship and many of Brazil’s most desireable brands, like Carlos Miele and Cris Barros.
But no mall comes close to matching the new Cidade Jardim in sheer refinement and beauty. Its open-air, tastefully-landscaped esplanades are home to some of the world’s chicest brands, including the biggest Louis Vuitton and first Hermès stores in Latin America. Petrossian opened its first boutique there a few months ago. London-based Issa and the American Tory Burch are next.

JK Iguatemi mall set to open in 2010, Iguatemi mall has two new pop-ups

Set to open in October of 2010, Shopping JK Iguatemi will be a giant in a city of giants. Three office towers, one luxury mall with 240 boutiques, etc. etc. - the numbers (of millions being spent on construction, of the square footage) are staggering.

We know São Paulo is huge and increasingly rich but are there enough shoppers for yet another temple of consumption? And super close to megastore Daslu, on top of it? Not sure...

In the meantime, the original Iguatemi, which for many years has been the poshest mall in town, is rolling out new stuff. November saw the opening of an Isabella Giobbi pop-up store, selling not only the designer's summer collection (think lots of silk and firefly prints) but also coffee table books and things for the home.

Another it-girl, the raven-haired beauty Helena Linhares, also opened a pop-up store at the Iguatemi, which will be up and running until January 31. The fashions, designed by Cacá Garcia, are inspired by the Miami of the thirties and forties. Here's one of the articles on the opening, showing Cacá (at left) and Helena (at right) with songstress Marina Lima, Helena's vvgf (very very good friend).