Motel: Renata Vanzetto turns up the fire

Red neon and Formica announced a change at Renata Vanzetto’s Bela Cintra address. Motel: comidas & cocktails replaced Ema’s setting with references to American roadside motels of the 1950s, while the kitchen moved more decisively towards fire.

WAYFARER’s July 2025 report described floral curtains, low lighting and a mix of nostalgic and contemporary details. The room made its point quickly; the food required a closer look.

A meal without a rigid sequence

Vanzetto organised the menu around small dishes for sharing rather than a fixed division between starters and main courses. The original account connected her interest in cooking over embers with weekend barbecues.

Prawn cocktail, gravlax, bacalhau à Brás, fries and potato salad appeared beside charred onions, leeks with lardo and pork broth, a savoury prawn-filled doughnut and snow peas with sheep’s-milk curd.

The combinations used memory without letting it dictate the whole menu. A retro dish and a more experimental preparation could enter the table in whatever order the group chose.

Gabriela Monteleone curated the wines, with artisanal producers prominent in the selection. The archive counted sixty-five seats, giving the new project more room than Ema.

These details belong to the original menu and opening account. Motel’s wider idea is the connection between an informal visual language and a technically considered meal. The humour was in the room; it did not remove the kitchen’s seriousness.

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Adapted from the WAYFARER Brazil archive, first published 2025-07-03. English adaptation: 6 October 2026. This is an archival account, not a report of a new visit. Exhibitions, collections and menu details are described in their original context, not as current availability.