See you soon, 35!

After 10 years in Lisbon, yesterday 100 Maneiras served its last meals at number 35, Rua do Teixeira. Opened in January 2009, this was the first 100 Maneiras in Lisbon. After the closing of 100 Maneiras in Cascais, Ljubomir Stanisic brought to the capital the first restaurant to serve a tasting menu at affordable prices, provoking a small revolution in the gastronomic scene of the city, democratizing the idea of ​​”fine dining”.

With only 30 seats, the small restaurant located in the heart of Bairro Alto soon won its signature dish, the only course present in all the menus (that changed seasonally): the Codfish Clothesline, inspired by the colorful clotheslines that hang by the windows of this neighborhood. To this image, Ljubo added the trace of Siza Vieira, the most famous Portuguese architect ever, and the shape of his Portuguese National Pavilion. The result was a mini clothesline where small colored clothes pegs sustain chips of the most “Portuguese” fish of all: cod.

It was the rebirth of the “Phoenix”. Here, the cook born in Yugoslavia began creating again, rising from the “ashes” of the bankruptcy of the first 100 Maneiras. Just over a month after opening doors, on February 28, 2009, the late critic and journalist David Lopes Ramos was among the first to write about Ljubo’s return to the kitchen: “He is one of the most talented and imaginative chefs of the new generation working in Portugal and a recent dinner in the new 100 Maneiras has confirmed it.”

Over the years, the prizes were added: for the restaurant, a constant presence in the lists of the best of the city; for the chef, winner of the David Lopes Ramos Gastronomy Award, in 2016, and recognized as Personality of the Year in Gastronomy 2017, among others; and for the group (which in 2010 opened another restaurant, Bistro 100 Maneiras), elected Best Concept / Brand, in the AHRESP 2018 awards.

If much has remained the same since the opening – as the relaxed yet professional service, which is the mark of 100 Maneiras, much has also changed. The last decade brought growth, (some) maturity 🙂 and another consciousness to Ljubomir. Increasingly focused on sharing the national products, namely the fish and shellfish which he considers to be among the best in the world, increasingly aware of the importance of sustainability, favoring less noble products and organic producers, this change is visible in the menus he has been presenting over the last 10 years. A path that the chef will continue following, within a few days, two doors away.

For now, the “old” 100 Maneiras will keep its doors closed but a return is expected. The future belongs to us. Now, we are present. Because it is in the present, in the moment, in the here and now, that we work every day to build what’s coming…