Heritage - Fasano Fifth Avenue

HISTORY & HERITAGE

“I enjoy things - food and design - that I will still find beautiful in 30 years' time”

– Gero Fasano

The story of Fasano is one of a family and its traditions; generations of excellence in the art of hospitality and gastronomy, nourished by an instinct to forge ahead into the future. It is also the story of one remarkable lifetime shaped by the endless cultivation of taste, culture and creativity, expressed in the emergence of a Fasano universe led by fourth-generation Gero Fasano and his unique artistic sensibility.

Dal 1902
The family story begins in 1902 when Vittorio Fasano, an Italian immigrant from Milan and the patriarch of his family in Brazil, opens the Brasserie Paulista in the historical center of São Paulo. This first restaurant gives origin to a century-long tradition in hospitality, imbued with values that have become synonymous with the Fasano name ever since.

Born into the business as the fourth generation of Fasano restaurateurs, Gero Fasano has led the brand for 40 years and carried his family’s legacy into the world. His involvement begins unexpectedly, when Gero abandons his film studies in London, at the plea of his father, Mr. Fabrizio, to return to Brazil. Together, father and son open a small namesake restaurant in the 1980’s following a twenty-year absence of their family businesses in the country. From that moment onward, with a pioneering spirit and extraordinary taste, Gero Fasano has tirelessly expanded the depth and breadth of the Fasano brand, consolidating his unique style of hospitality, conquering Brazil and beyond.

The Expansion from Gastronomy to Hotels
Exactly 100 years after the family’s first restaurant, Gero Fasano opens its first hotel. The Fasano Sao Paulo is received with unprecedented acclaim in 2003 and dramatically changes the luxury landscape in Brazil. It is shortly followed by a Rio de Janeiro opening, where Gero enlists superstar architect Philippe Starck to sign on its design.

The Fasano collection presently comprises 10 iconic hotels and 30 restaurants in Brazil, Uruguay and the United States. Throughout the years, the brand has garnered a loyal international following and its outposts have become indispensable parts of the social and cultural life of their cities, playing host to milestone moments and memories. Further projects expanding on the brand’s signature lifestyle are currently in development, in some of the most coveted destinations around the world, including Miami and London.

“You won’t feel at home with us, you’ll feel at a Fasano”
–Gero Fasano

Fasano prides itself on creating properties with personality, each deeply rooted in geography, culture, art, design and gastronomy. From the laid-back sophistication of its cosmopolitan outposts in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, to the relaxed countryside and coastal retreats of Trancoso and Angra dos Reis, each property displays a nostalgia for aesthetic values long past, with notable mid-century design and contemporary twists informed by an acute understanding of luxury throughout. While no two hotels are quite alike, distinct with their own unique charm and design language, each remains true to the very same Fasano spirit.

1902

Patriarch Vittorio Fasano arrives in Brazil from Milan, opening Brasserie Paulista at Praça Antonio Prado in the historic center of an elegant and well-dressed São Paulo.

1947

Upon Vittorio’s passing, his youngest son Ruggero Fasano is sent to Italy to complete his studies at the Royal School of Moncalieri, near Turin. He returns in 1937 and soon resumes the family’s gastronomic legacy, opening Fasano Restaurant on Rua Vieira de Carvalho in São Paulo’s city center. Throughout the 1950’s Fasano follows the trail of the growing city, with new locations popping up here and there, including the reopening of the legendary address of the former Brasserie Paulista. The Fasano Confectionery on Rua Barão de Itapetininga becomes the most sought after spot in the city for high society’s afternoon tea.

1960

Ruggero Fasano opens the Fasano Jardim de Inverno (or, Fasano Winter Garden), on the iconic Avenida Paulista, in the Conjunto Nacional. It quickly becomes a meaningful and much loved place where milestone moments are celebrated. The Fasano also becomes the stage for international talents such as Nat King Cole, who perform to the likes of celebrities such as David Niven, Marlene Dietrich and Ginger Rogers. The Prince of Wales, Fidel Castro, and US President Dwight Eisenhower are also among some of the notable names to enjoy Fasano’s lively nightlife here.

1980

Businessman Fabrizio Fasano, the son of Ruggero and who presides over a large beverage company, calls upon his own son, Rogerio, to return from his studies in London and relaunch with him the family business. At the time, Gero, as Rogerio has been called since the early age of six, was treading his own path, studying film, and dreaming of one day working with the likes of Francis Ford Coppola, making his own motion pictures. Nevertheless, the opportunity to revive his grandfather’s legacy under Fabrizio’s experienced supervision is not one to pass up, and he soon returns to Brazil.

1983

Father and son, Fabrizio and Rogerio Fasano reclaim the family name and partner to open a new, small and sophisticated Fasano Restaurant on Rua Amauri in São Paulo.

1990

A few years on, Fasano Restaurant moves to São Paulo’s stylish and affluent Jardins neighborhood with a new architectural design worthy of its ambition to be a landmark destination for the finest cuisine in the city.

1993

Italian restaurant ‘Gero’ opens and becomes one of the most popular restaurants in Sao Paulo, to this day – a tradition that has lasted over 30 years.

1998

The live music bar ‘Baretto’ is unveiled within Fasano Restaurant on Rua Amauri. ‘Parigi’, word for Paris in Italian, opens on the same street as Fasano’s first French cuisine outpost. Parigi quickly became synonymous with the power lunch, standing unmatched until this day.

2003

Under the creative vision and aspiration of Gero Fasano, 2003 marks a new era for the family name with the launch of the five-star Fasano Hotel in São Paulo. Designed by acclaimed Brazilian architects Isay Weinfeld and Marcio Kogan, the hotel features a Baretto jazz bar and two Italian restaurants.

2007

The iconic Fasano Rio de Janeiro is inaugurated in one the world’s most desired settings, on the best spot of Ipanema beach, receiving unprecedented global acclaim. That same year, in a historic move for the brand, Gero Fasano partnered with JHSF – Brazil’s most prominent high-income real estate developer, founded in 1972 and led by his good friend José Auriemo.

2010

Under a successful and trusting partnership with JHSF, Fasano opens its very first property outside of the country, launching Fasano Punta del Este at the exclusive Uruguayan resort town. Meanwhile, ‘Gero’ Restaurant opens in Brasilia.

2011

Fasano Boa Vista opens, nestled among the quiet plains of the São Paulo countryside. Italian restaurant ‘Gero Barra’ opens in Rio de Janeiro.

2013

Italian restaurant ‘Trattoria Fasano’ opens in São Paulo.

2014

The Fasano Group’s second French restaurant, ‘Bistrot Parigi,’ opens in Sao Paulo.

2016

An expansion is undertaken at Fasano Punta Del Este, adding ten new rooms.

2017

Fasano Angra dos Reis opens, a five-star hotel in the exclusive and most idyllic archipelago of Angra dos Reis, outside of Rio de Janeiro.

2018

Fasano Salvador opens in the UNESCO World Heritage city of Salvador, located in an iconic building from the 1930s, the former headquarters of the newspaper A Tarde. The same year, Fasano Belo Horizonte opens, located in the Lourdes neighborhood of the bustling capital of Minas Gerais.

2019

Six new restaurants are welcomed in Brazil, adding to Fasano’s gastronomic portfolio.

2021

Fasano Trancoso opens, situated within the Trancoso Reserve Project, spread over approximately 300 hectares of native forest in the South of Bahia, Brazil.

Marking a brand new chapter for Fasano, the group also opens its first Northern Hemisphere property, with the launch of Fasano Fifth Avenue in New York City.

2022

Fasano Restaurant New York, featuring the first international outpost of legendary jazz bar Baretto, open on Park Avenue.

Meanwhile, in Sao Paulo, Emporio Fasano opens as the first large-scale food emporium of the brand.

2023

The second Fasano enterprise in the city of São Paulo is inaugurated with the opening of Hotel Fasano São Paulo Itaim, designed by the renowned office Aflalo/Gasperini in partnership with Márcio Kogan for the interiors.