Santa at the Table - In beautiful Santa Teresa

A delightful event.

This weekend I was able to get to know and taste the best Santa Teresa has to offer: Santa na Mesa!

The neighborhood is hosting the Santa na Mesa gastronomic festival for the first time, from September 21 to October 1.

There will be lots of stalls representing the neighborhood's restaurants and serving delicious food at attractive prices!
We had a lovely afternoon in the Ruins Park, where we enjoyed lunch and a beautiful sunset.
I'm super suspicious, I love Parque das Ruínas, which always brings new things to us and has a privileged view of Rio de Janeiro.

In addition to the stalls, Santa na Mesa brings other novelties, such as the circus of flavors, where chefs cook with products available at the organic produce fair held in Parque das Ruínas itself and offer tastings to the public, the meetings taking place at pre-established times: 12pm and 3pm.

Wonderful food

I'm already a regular in the neighborhood and I love some of the restaurants featured in Santa na Mesa, others I met there and loved!
Of course, I couldn't miss the moqueca and the shrimp pastel from Sobrenatural, but the picadinho from Espirito Santa....huuuummmm what a delight!

The little one loved the mince, it has chocolate sauce, we liked it!!!
For dessert I opted for Dona Alda's Portuguese sweets, which are super traditional here in Rio de Janeiro, and at the end of the afternoon I had a banana jam tapioca with molasses and toasted sesame from Quitanda Natural, all simply delicious!
For a drink, I tried an ice-cold quentão, lol... different, right? But it's good, you know? Igor had the good old draft beer and the little one the juice.

Santa na Mesa goes beyond the Parque das Ruínas.

But don't think that the event is only in Parque das Ruínas. We went on a complete tour with lots of cool stuff!
To begin with, I rode the streetcar for the first time, we went to the station at Rua Lélio Gama, 2 and went up to Santa, the ride costs 20 reais and Uber is a good option to get to the city center, which is a bit tricky to stop the car at.

Upstairs, we got off at Largo dos Guimarães station and walked around everything and got to know the best of the neighborhood.

The festival's itinerary is very complete, with options for accommodation and gastronomy, which is subdivided into bars, restaurants, sandwiches, breakfast and more. In addition, there is a social responsibility itinerary that promotes the improvement of the neighborhood and the local population.
We visited many of the city's icons, such as the wonderful Hotel Santa Teresa.

Hotel Santa Teresa

We were invited by the event organizers and as soon as we arrived at the hotel we were greeted with cheese bread, cookies and refreshing juices.
Emmanuel, who loves cheese bread, didn't want to leave! Even more so after he saw a decorative cow, anyone who follows us knows that he loves oxen and cows, lol I think they're his favorite animals.

It was at the Santa Teresa hotel that we had another beautiful surprise, it's really nice to touch history, isn't it? If you're staying there, don't miss the Bar dos Descasados!

Notice that you can touch a brick from the time of colonial Brazil! From when the material came from Portugal to build the city, it even has the Cross of Malta and Rio de Janeiro written on the bricks.
I thought it was great, so if you want to see a bit more of it, check it out!

Stroll around the restaurants.

From the Santa Teresa hotel, we continued our wanderings towards Santa na Mesa. We passed the Mama Shelter hotel and were enchanted at every turn.
The neighborhood is more like an open-air studio, full of art from the walls to the lampposts, not to mention the garages.

We stopped at a few restaurants along the way.
We walked from the Hotel Santa Teresa to the Ruins Park, which is a quick and easy route.

And the stops along the way to sample a treat or quench your thirst are strategic and delicious.
It makes the ride much more enjoyable!

Tip: don't miss the crunchy coxinha from Espirito Santa.
Part of the journey was done without a stroller, but when we had to put it in the stroller, we didn't have any difficulty walking on the street.
The only tricky place to take a stroller is on the street that goes up to Parque das Ruínas.
The street has sidewalks with lots of stationary cars and large cobblestones.
On event days, not even Uber can go up, only locals or cabs are allowed.

A bit of the neighborhood's history.

Santa is a neighborhood that breathes art and savors flavors. A delightful walk for all ages with frequent events that make the neighborhood more attractive!
By the way, do you know why the neighborhood is called Santa Teresa? In the 18th century there was a convent called Santa Teresinha and that's where the name of the neighborhood came from.
Rio de Janeiro began to grow beyond the city center, with the upper classes of the time migrating to Santa Teresa.
And little by little they built the beautiful houses that we still see today, with beautiful French architecture.

But the neighborhood's history is not only about the rich. In 1850, Rio residents who were afraid of the dreaded yellow fever took shelter there.
As it is a high-rise neighborhood, it was less affected by the fever.

Santa Teresa streetcars.

Another important landmark of the neighborhood that still makes us proud today are the Santa Teresa streetcars!
They first appeared in 1877 up Joaquim Murtinho and Almirante Alexandrino Streets. But they didn't always look the way they do today.
At that time the streetcars were pulled by donkeys, but later on electrified engines came along!

The original color of the first streetcars wasn't the traditional yellow we're used to either! Santa Teresa's first streetcar was green and had many variations until it reached the one we see today.

A tour not to be missed

And it was in this icon of the city of Rio de Janeiro that we began our tour of Santa Na Mesa.
Passing by the Carioca Aqueduct, better known as Arcos da Lapa.

I was thrilled to see our beautiful city from up there, in my 30 years I had never been on a streetcar!

A shame for a carioca, right? However, it's worth remembering that it only came back into operation about two years ago!

It was me, my little one and my husband on this delicious tour of the neighborhood that I love so much, in search of the unique tastes that the neighborhood translates.

I love Santa Teresa and I thought the festival was incredible, Santa na Mesa managed to bring together everything that's tasty! We're already looking forward to the next ones.

See here another accommodation with children in Thailand, but this time in Bangkok
Be sure to follow us on Instagram and enjoy all our trips in real time.
Or travel with us in our videos on YouTube! 
See a bit of our last trip too! This way