It opened a year and a half ago on Rua da Torrinha, in one of the commercial spaces of the building that rescued the corner between that artery and Aníbal Cunha from abandonment and unhealthy conditions, and is one of the newcomers in the food court of Primavera Sound Portowhich will liven up Parque da Cidade from the 11th to the 14th of June. Lu’kat Focaccia — “the phonetics in Latin for place” —, by José Pinto from Porto, expects to serve festival-goers 2000 focaccias.
Winking at the festival’s important foreign audience, and in an inversion of the concept behind the project located in downtown Invicta — using national raw materials and suppliers whenever possible premium -, to the focaccia do Primavera will use ingredients from abroad, but of high quality, guarantees the 26-year-old.
José applied to have his Lu’kat in the festival’s food court and the organization selected the project, but placed it in the “World Cuisine” section, explains the young man with a degree in hotel management and who worked in the DOP kitchen, was at the pre-opening of Kai’s Songbird, at the Corinthia Yacht Club in Doha, Qatar, and in Barcelona — where he had studied — worked at the Ritz. “It was a short experience, because I had this idea for a project for some time now.”
In his first Spring as a restaurateur, he will serve a focaccia with coppa — Italian pork smoked —, Mantuanella cheese — one money padano —, arugula and vinaigrette (11€) and a vegetarian option with sun-dried tomatoes (11€) instead of smoked meat.
The dried tomato is just one of the details that distinguish the focaccia of Lu’kat sourdough. It’s not dried in the sun, but it’s dried in the oven in the project’s kitchen and it’s not as sweet as many of the options available in supermarkets. From the main ingredients to sauces and seasonings, Lu’kat’s focus has always been “on the product, not on convenience”, José Pinto tells Fugas. “I wanted to create a space where people come to eat focaccia.”
This is also why this same space is uncluttered — with cardboard benches for 19 people, a single note of color in an orange lamp, the focaccia shine on the concrete counter — and the drinks menu is very short: waters, sodas from Why Not, a kombucha d’Aquela Kombucha, two beers from Praxis and two wines, one white and one red — the Vinhão that José Pinto’s maternal grandfather produces in Minho — and a signature drink, with tangerine and tonic water.
The smoker you use in focaccia comes from a butcher shop in Pinhão, famous for providing the chefs with a Michelin star, and cheeses from a micro cheese factory in Setúbal. Pestos are also national and José tries to avoid basil pestos, which are very Italian, there is no doubt, but which say less to our gastronomy. “We are having parsley, spinach or coriander pesto. And now we have a focaccia with a horseradish mayonnaise made by us. THE pickle We are also the ones who do it. And, in the vegetarian option, we put a pea cream with São Miguel cheese, cured for nine months, all seasoned with olive oil and salt.”
For Primavera, you will go to “chocolate chip cookie” (€3.5) that helped win over the stomachs of some of Lu’kat’s loyal customers. It’s the only sweet on a menu that only has four focaccia. “It’s a cookie of chocolate with 70% cocoa, which (also) already brings people to Lu’kat on purpose”, describes José Pinto, who at the festival expects to “exceed 2000 focaccia and 600 cookies.” Interestingly, Lu’kat will share Primavera’s gastronomic stage with the neighboring Cookie Club, its “rival from Cedofeita” — it is one of the spaces selected in the “Sweets and Drinks” category.
Nelson Garrido
Less meat, more diversity
In this edition, Primavera Sound Porto once again celebrates “snacks”, alongside a varied offer of “street food”. In the “Portuguese Prime” selection, there is a newcomer, Xau Laura, which opened eight years ago and has remained made of stone and lime, serving Portuguese-style tapas — as the festival organizers call them on the event’s English page — such as cod fritters, gizzards, patties and ham sandwiches.
In total, there will be more than 40 restaurant projects that will provide food and drink to festival-goers and, among these, around a dozen are new, the majority precisely in the “World Cuisine”. In this category, in addition to Lu’kat, Moche Verde, Saikõ, Ólarica and Delira are new entries.
In “Hamburgers and Pizza”, M’arrecreo makes its debut. And this year, there is another vegetarian to accompany Da Terra and Pé na Horta: Trunk & Taste. In the VIP area, there will be the restaurants El Ghiglio by Milaneza, La Bela Pizza by Belos Aires, Prima by Maurício Ghiglionee and Belos Smashed Burger.
Joana Lima, from SPOT (This Is The Spot), which has curated the restaurant offerings and also the Primavera Sound Porto market since the beginning of the festival, explained to Fugas that the main concern, in recent years, has been “increasing the diversity” of the projects. “Everyone is now used to the food at Primavera being good, so our focus has been on diversity, without losing quality, of course. And, contrary to what one might imagine, the offers that appear to us are: meat, meat, meat”, noted the person in charge.
Knowing that “there are a lot of people looking for a place at Primavera”, SPOT, a creative studio that organizes events that are already part of the city’s urban culture, such as the Flea Market or Os Pratos em Volta, opens registrations to anyone who wants to apply, in addition to directly selecting projects, always in partnership with the festival organization. This year, says Joana Lima, the spontaneous application process opened “at eleven in the morning and at two in the afternoon of the same day there were already 60 or 70 candidates”.
Next year, whoever has a food truck You know what serves something other than meat: “The focus has always been to bring what was local to the festival, in the beginning our work was very similar, but now it’s important to diversify”.
News corrected at 9:30 am, the restaurants Prima, Rebost de l’Avis and Argentinian Grill are not debuts, as previously written
