Nearly two decades ago, when Janaína Torres opened Bar da Dona Onça on the ground floor of the Copan Building, Oscar Niemeyer’s iconic S-shaped landmark in downtown São Paulo, the neighborhood was a very different place. Long abandoned by much of the city’s middle and upper classes, the area was known more for criminality and sex work than for restaurants. It was hardly the obvious place to open a dining room, especially in a city whose culinary prestige had long been concentrated in neighborhoods like Jardins and, more recently, Pinheiros.
