Emídio Freire hasn't had time to put the plaque on the wall, but his «Faina» is already working. This is the restaurant at the Museu de Portimão, which finally opens its doors, nine years after the inauguration of its mother house.
The official opening took place yesterday afternoon, with a well-watered and even better-fed sunset, taking full advantage of the restaurant's location, right by the river, with the boats and the Arade as a backdrop.
The opening culminates a long period since, last December, Emídio Freire, with his wife and partner, won, at a public auction, the exploration of the museum's future restaurant. Until then, the space had only functioned for occasional events, so when the entrepreneur took the restaurant, he discovered that there was a lot, a lot, to do.
It took almost eight months to «adapt the space to our concept, that is, to the type of products and dishes that we want to present», explained yesterday an exhausted but happy Emídio to Sul Informação. But it was also necessary to carry out a “overhaul of all the equipment, already nine or ten years old”, to reformulate many technical aspects that were either obsolete or poorly conceived. And there were the bureaucracies...
Without a wink for more than 24 hours, Emídio Freire explained to our newspaper that the whole "concept" of "Faina" (a name that has everything to do with the history of the city and the place) "links to the Museum and to what he represents". It is, nevertheless, a «Work in progress», a work whose details are being fine-tuned.
Yesterday, the opening was for guests only, namely the president and vice-president of the Portimão Chamber (Isilda Gomes and Joaquim Castelão Rodrigues), the Museum director (José Gameiro), its division head (Isabel Soares), the President of the Group of Friends of the Portimão Museum (Daniel Cartucho), or Pepe Feu, one of the former owners of the canning factory where the museum structure is now built, the current Algarve canning artisans (Vincent Jonckheere and Manuel Mendes, from Saboreal), as well as many friends and family.
The menu included cheeses and Algarve sausages, a tasting of Saboreal appetizers, shrimp and squid strips wrapped in batter and fried, with a special sauce, and roast beef, all to be eaten by hand and accompanied with fine wines or a very cold beer.
In addition to Emídio, the kitchen had the help of another Head coming from far away: Francisco Salema, the native of Portimo who, with his partner Filipe Duarte, opened the «Tertúlia», a restaurant serving «Portuguese and Algarve food», in the city of Kampot, Cambodia, three years ago.
«I came on vacation to Portugal and, as I've known Emídio for many years, he asked me to help start the restaurant. And here I am!», he told the Sul Informação a cheerful Francisco Salema as he cut squid strips in the newly opened kitchen.
The «Faina» restaurant, which has to keep up with the rhythm of the Portimão Museum, will open every day from 10:00 am to midnight, closing on Mondays. However, because Emídio is also very connected to the arts – he was the founder of the Portimão film club, Contramaré –, at «Faina» there will be cinema sessions and musical performances on weekends, days when the restaurant may close later.
But beware: this weekend (August 19th and 20th), exceptionally, «Faina» only opens at 18pm, for sunset and dinner.
Emídio Freire explained to Sul Informação that the restaurant will serve “lunches, but due to its location in front of the river, after work people can come here for a snack, make the bed in the stomach and then stay for dinner. And then you can have a gin and tonic. This is a versatile and dynamic space that will change throughout the day».
More than a simple place to have a drink and eat, Emídio wants his «Faina» to be «a meeting point for the various tasks out there». The food, as we saw yesterday, “will revolve around traditional food, but with interpretation. I really like to invent about our own references».
What does not open is the first floor of the restaurant, a room that has an even more stunning view than the one on the ground floor, which opens onto the river, also in an open-air space. «Upstairs, we will have a different type of meal, without a menu. We will make fun trips, by regions, by products, let's call others chefs».
José Gameiro, scientific director of the Portimão Museum, sees the opening of «Faina» as the closing of a cycle in the award-winning structure. "It was the final piece we were missing," he told the Sul Informação. «The restaurant responds to the Museum's programme, not being just another restaurant, but rather a room where culture takes place. Basically, it is a room that will continue, from a gastronomic point of view, the objectives of the Museum».
So, you already know: enjoy these hot summer evenings and nights and get to know more about this piece from the Portimão Museum…which, being open until 23:00 during the summer, you can even visit afterwards.
Photos: Elisabete Rodrigues|Sul Informação
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