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[00:00:00] Kelly: Joe, we're here to talk about one of our all time favorite restaurants and then the rest of the night that happened with that. And I couldn't be more excited meet on a rock .
[00:00:31] Joseph: This place. And we've been there a couple times. Meat on a rock is our. I don't know who named it that, but , it was in preparation for this conversation that we learned.
[00:00:44] It's real name .
[00:00:46] Kelly: If we're not gonna try and butcher here, if you want to give it a shot, you know, Mr. Minnesota, and you can go for it, but I'm not even gonna try.
[00:00:53] Joseph: The English speaker from, America, all of, every of the words we reserved the right to be very wrong, but I don't know why they would've called the meat on a rock place after a Gord, but that's what they did.
[00:01:08] We are in, Lisbon. Portugal, which is the capital city of the great Portugal. I did some work on this one, 2.7 million people, the 11th, most populated, capital in Europe. Okay. It's river to the West is what we've talked about before Cascais. Which we've heard people say... different than these restaurants.
[00:01:36] And it's one of the oldest cities in the world, the second oldest city in, Europe only after Athens. Did you know that stop? I didn't, I didn't know that. And it predates other modern European, capitals by centuries. And we're right in downtown when, we're headed to this restaurant, it's just off of, a little square that's there to celebrate their 16th century poet. It's just west of where there was a fire in 1988 and now they have modern, like the modern shopping district. And which I think is Rua Garrett to the right, in the Chiado. Which I'm definitely sure. I said wrong. And so you've got new...
[00:02:25] Kelly: and that little espresso bar we would always stop at by the parking garage, but keep going.
[00:02:30] Joseph: Absolutely. You can take the, the tube runs under Lisbon. You can take it pop up in the Metro right there, right from the airport. Like super, super old city with this kind of new area, that's all a shopping district. Around this corner up from what is this kind of triangle square, where all the cars and the trolley and everything moves in a random way.
[00:02:55] We found this restaurant called meat on a rock and in Lisbon the sidewalks are like art. So you can imagine us late at night, walking on arty sidewalks, and then being brought to this.
[00:03:12] Kelly: If you haven't been to Lisbon, one, it's a relatively easy city to get to, and we're not gonna get into how to get there because if you can't figure out how to get to Lisbon, you probably just shouldn't go.
[00:03:24] What I liked about it is you can land in the airport. You can take a train, take a car, and I'd like to train. I've taken a train a number of times in times where I've been there before you, and been able to walk around the. It's a very compact city in the downtown, really tight. You've got the classic street cars going up and down these hills.
[00:03:43] And to your point about the sidewalks, it's an amazing art. Very, very compact. And the people are extremely nice, really, really wonderful. And the thing that struck me if we're gonna speak about dinner, well, first, the first time we went there, just for some of my emotions is we'd been hustling hard, like going full tilt, sunrise, sunset, sunrise, sunset, and we were there to see some friends and we ended up going to meet on a rock and it was late. And it was January and it was, and it was cold. And I don't love cold. I remember it meeting huddling outside. So I was smoked, tired, just beat down. And this is five plus years ago. So I probably, wasn't doing a wonderful job of responding, not reacting. And I was struck by how late they eat in Lisbon.
[00:04:33] Compared to us, right? You would walk by a restaurant at 11 and there'd be a nine year old in there with, with her parents having dinner. Right. So what, why I think why I love this place is it's in an alley if take a right down this, this long alley and there's this nondescript door and every time we've been there, couldn't get in and you have to wait in the queue for a half an hour, 45 minutes.
[00:05:00] And I don't do well with queues. And we did, and I over the moon, love it. And here's why, it's jammed in there. Red and white checkered table cloth, something straight outta out of how to little Italy and New York. And there's a bunch of guys and it's all guys running around serving. And you sit down, here's your table.
[00:05:24] No options, no nothing. Here's your table. Boom. And now you're sitting basically shoulder to shoulder with somebody else and you might find as a turnoff. I, ended up, I couldn't be more excited about a restaurant even given the fact that, I don't eat red meat except for in occasions where it's an experience like this.
[00:05:44] Yeah. It's a small space, but you feel jammed because there's so many people in there. And the first time I walked in, I was like, this is super unique. It's not happening in America because our fire codes wouldn't let it happen. So tight. And they're bringing out the, yeah. You walk in and it's a little smoky and there's probably a football.
[00:06:11] On, a TV that's too small. Very Europe. And, um, people are like, I don't know, blow torching the top of a dessert. As the, as the sugar is caramelizing is coming up, smoking in your face, the same thing's happening in front of almost every person in there. With the meat on this giant, it's not giant a rock that's super hot.
[00:06:37] And so , it's just this very obvious smell. Super tight space with the football going.
[00:06:46] Kelly: Let let's pause there. Let's pause there for two points. 1.1 first time you had on your Portugal national team Jersey that you picked up or, or jacket you picked up on the way to, to have solidarity, which was a good call.
[00:06:56] Yes. Second, we're talking about meat on a rock. Here's the jam. This is a very ancient method of cooking. And you take a, a rock granite or volcanic rock of some sort. You stick it in an oven, you get it up to 500 degrees. You put it on a, on a board, essentially a cutting board and it comes out and next to is a slab of meat or shrimp or something else.
[00:07:22] And in our case, it was always red. Meat comes with a couple sauce. An aioli, some salt, whatever. Now what's interesting about this and I actually appreciated about this method of cooking. There's no oils. There's no nothing. You've got it. You're slicing the meat off yourself. You're putting it on the rock, cooking into the temperature you want. Dip it in, whatever sauces, add whatever salt you want. And then it's yours. You combine that with some absolutely unhealthy French fries that they do that are wonderful. And a bottle of wine from Duro, which is just a hot second to the North. It probably costs you nine Euro. It's a, it's my.. Dude, it's my jam.
[00:07:59] And I would do it like I would fly. I would fly Lisbon just to go to this place. Now it is not an Epicuren masterpiece by any stretch of the imagination. But when we talk about moments, this is like deeply ingrained in me because of the humanity that's in there because of the friends I did it with because of the tactile experience of participating, not just getting processed.
[00:08:26] Joseph: Yeah, absolutely. And it wasn't until, well, we saw some of this when we were in the Azores where they're cooking under the earth because of the volcanic heat. Right. Very primal. Not only is it red meat, but, to cook it that way in front of you, it's, it's, uh, the trigger something inside of you. Yeah. And I think, I think we had what seven, eight people eat for 40 euros.
[00:08:54] Kelly: 40 euros. I, have, I, took a picture of the, I remember vividly you and I both said, take a picture of that check. And I have it right here, 47, 45 for seven or eight of us. And it was wonderful. And the second time we went, we went with friends and we ordered clams and all of these other things.
[00:09:14] I thought your comments around Trip Advisor were interesting about this place because I went on and looked at some reviews.
[00:09:20] Joseph: I didn't, because we've had such amazing experiences there ever need to go and find Trip Advisor for it. Our friends knew etc. So in preparation for talking to the world about this, I figured I'd go see what the world has to say. And people love this place in a way like we do. And then there's a sliver of folks.
[00:09:40] I dunno how big it is. Maybe 10, 20% that hate it, hate it. And it has to do with, you know, they're objecting to the forced appetizers or the fact that you have to sit next to somebody or the fact that it's really smoky or the fact that, right. It's the things that we actually like about it. That, if you're not in the right mindset or you have a different expectation for your dinner, it would behoove you to leave those behind when you walk into this place.
[00:10:12] Kelly: I agree. What was, what was interesting is we found it by, by our friends there. So locals and additional context is when you look around inside, it's mostly local. And that was, that was... absolutely.
[00:10:27] So we, we did that. We walked out, it was almost midnight and we came and we say goodbye, our friends. And we came to the end of that alley.
[00:10:36] And we took a right and somewhere in your distorted idea of what a night or sleep should look like , you decided we needed espresso and we found this little place, right?
[00:10:50] Joseph: Ah, no, no, no, no, no, no.
[00:10:51] Kelly: That's what happened.
[00:10:52] Joseph: My interest well, I knew what was there. My interest is those egg tarts. And so a singular, one of these is called the pasteis.
[00:11:02] And I don't know how to say the other one paste.
[00:11:05] Kelly: It's pastel de nata. I have researched this thoroughly and I'm gonna go hard in with all of my gringoness to say, pastel de nata.
[00:11:14] Joseph: Perfect, so likely wrong, but I'm going to like the 18th century in Portugal when they had a bunch of monasteries. Everyone who's using the egg whites to starch their clothing.
[00:11:32] And out of that, you have to find what to do with our egg yolks. And now you have these pastries that have, a long history there. And, you didn't know this at the time, but the Guardian has talked about this as one of the top 50 best things to eat in the world.
[00:11:49] I can get behind
[00:11:50] Kelly: that by the way.
[00:11:51] Joseph: And the place, the name of the place translates from Portuguese to English to butter shop.
[00:12:00] Kelly: Further, further makes sense.
[00:12:03] Joseph: I think not only do you not eat a lot of red meat, I think you stay away from the pastry. So this was a perfect evening for you.
[00:12:11] Kelly: Well, pastries and I go to sleep at 7 30.
[00:12:15] Joseph: Yes.
[00:12:16] And so this narrow little spot, done really, really well, like I've photos of this place. The fit and finish is spot on and it's, again, it's, it's midnight. It's not, not midnight. And there's trays of the entire production process for making hundreds of these things in process, at midnight. And it's a little like the French care about their bread, I think that, that it'd be fresh or they were prepping for the next day. I can't quite tell, but the ones we had. Came out of the oven, maybe a few minutes before we had them. And, a little cinnamon, little powdered sugar, little circle. Circles of joy. And we're standing going like, should we have, should we, do we have an espresso?
[00:13:08] And I think you were like, yeah, yeah, we should have an espresso. And we walk out on the street and we enjoy these. Cause it's so tiny in there. And I remember looking back at you and going, like, you want another one and we turn and stomp back in and just do it again. It was wonderful.
[00:13:30] That chain, has a bunch of these spots, but I like this particular one the most.
[00:13:35] Kelly: I agree. And I remember two distinct things beside the pastel de nata and the espresso is, to your point about the fit and finish, you walk in and it's beautiful. And there's a long glass wall in front of the kitchen and don't pretend the kitchen's big. It's just a strip and you're there and they're there.
[00:13:53] They're there preparing the pastries, you go down the line and you get your, you get your pastries, you get your espresso.
[00:14:00] The other thing I remember was the humans. They were so nice, just so incredibly nice. And to your point about the next morning, these things are everywhere. If you ever been to Portugal or, or candidly, I'm starting to see 'em in the US.
[00:14:13] They're just absolutely everywhere. There are all kinds of things, you know, depending on the time of day, it doesn't really matter. People are eating em. You and I have partaken in them when we've been in the middle of nowhere and that's all we could find for breakfast too. So...
[00:14:25] Joseph: Rando gas station has better coffee than most of the coffee shops, in America.
[00:14:32] And when we ask our friends about it, it's because they, they said, this is, Fillipe he's like, well, we conquered, we conquered Brazil.
[00:14:42] You take, you take really good coffee and match it to this on some gas station, you know, on rando day run to the Algarve. Ah, this is great.
[00:14:56] Kelly: Perfect. And, and for clarity, for those, those thinking that it's, it's some truck stop with some day old coffee. No, it's an espresso machine. He's pulling an espresso for you.
[00:15:07] And it's wonderful.
[00:15:09] Now that that evening was amazing. Your downtown Lisbon it's busy. It's exciting. It's cold. We meet on a rock espresso, pastries. Midnight, et cetera. Those are, those are pretty fond memories for me. My recommendation is if you're gonna go, go be prepared for a queue, go with friends, be ready for an experience, a tactile experience where you're gonna partake.
[00:15:33] If you don't eat meat, you can figure something out there too. You'll you'll be okay. And, I personally think it's wonderful. I was really fortunate. We could take back my middle son to experience that with us and then just do it up. Get that, that pastel de nata and an espresso at midnight. It is a wonderful moment.
[00:15:50] Do it with a good buddy. So you can cherish it for many years to come. All worth it. Even, if you only end up sleeping two or three hours that night, cause you gotta sunrise to hustle to the next day.
[00:16:03] Joseph: This is before the, sleep trackers that we're paying attention to. We made poor decisions and, really good memories.
[00:16:11] And to that end, cultivate the moments, not only with yourself, but also with your people. And if this makes sense and you go let us know. We see that they've made it through the last, you know, 20 20, the last years. And, look forward to, to learning about how it is now and, share this with people going to Lisbon.
[00:16:34] Kelly: All right. Well, that's a wrap onto the next one, Joe, onto the next. Take care.
Meat on a rock