Blog da Lis

Reservations:

Dinner: Monday to Friday from 7 p.m. – Saturday from 7:30 p.m.
Brunch/Lunch: Saturdays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

All dietary restrictions are accommodated when specified in advance during the reservation.

Reservations: via email at enoteca@saintvinsaint.com.br – phone: +55 11 3846-0384 

Reservations & Wine Shop: +55 11 95085-0448 (WhatsApp)

About Enoteca Saint VinSaint:

Enoteca Saint VinSaint opened its doors on January 22, 2008. Pioneers in the natural, organic, and biodynamic wine movement in Brazil, we work exclusively with 100% organic and artisanal ingredients sourced from our organic gardens or small producers throughout the state of São Paulo, respecting seasonality and culinary traditions.

The founder of the restaurant is Lis Cereja, a chef and nutritionist. Lis is still responsible for the restaurant’s conceptual direction, menu development, wine list design, as well as events and communication.

We do not use refined or ultra-processed products and, over more than a decade, we have created a network of hundreds of small producers around the state of São Paulo, whom we visit and closely follow. Growing our organic gardens and cultivating some of our ingredients became a natural step – we plant herbs, edible plants, vegetables, medicinal herbs, edible flowers, as well as raise free-range chickens for eggs and goats for fresh milk. More than 60% of our menu is plant-based. Since 2015, we have been growing all the herbs and vegetables served on our menu in our organic gardens. From these gardens, we also source eggs from free-range, naturally-fed chickens, edible plants, medicinal herbs, and fresh goat milk. Everything we do not grow or make ourselves is purchased directly from producers or institutions that promote direct consumer|field connections. Our supplier list includes hundreds of producers cataloged over the past decade and is available to anyone who wishes to receive it via email.

No fixed menu. Working with circular systems of production and consumption. Crafting the menu only after receiving ingredients from the garden and organic suppliers. Respecting seasonality and culinary traditions. Reviving, remembering, valuing, simplifying. No waste. Making the most of each ingredient. Reusing. Knowing the producers. Letting nature and farmers guide us on what to use and cook each season. Wines are only natural, organic, and biodynamic, as wine is also nourishment. For us, the true value of food lies in the people who produce it, in this small, conscious, local, and sustainable scale.

Natural Wines:

(our wine list is always updated and available in the “vinhos” section of our website.)

Pioneers in the natural wine movement in Brazil, our wine list has been 100% natural since 2010, featuring around 400 rotating labels from around the world, all available by the glass at a proportional bottle price. All wines are natural, organic, biodynamic, or what we consider “common sense” sustainable. 

Beyond wine, we also select ciders, beers, and cachaças – all crafted organically or biodynamically. Each season, we create a medicinal tincture using organic cachaça and herbs from our garden, along with our own house wine made from organic grapes and naturally vinified, jabuticaba wine from our garden, homemade vermouth from natural wine, liqueurs with organic cachaça, and sparkling wines made from Brazilian fruits.

In addition to the restaurant, since 2013, we have also organized the Feira de Vinhos Naturebas: an annual fair for natural wine producers from around the world, now hosting around 150 exhibitors and welcoming two thousand visitors.

We also offer the same labels of the wine list for sale in our online store, and all the labels on our wine list can be ordered by the glass at a proportional bottle price.

100% organic menu and our own organic gardens: 

( our sazonal menu is always updated and available in the “menus” section of our website. )

Our menu is crafted with 100% organic, seasonal ingredients sourced from our own garden or from small, artisanal producers. We do not use refined or ultra-processed products and have, over more than a decade, built a network of hundreds of small producers around the state of São Paulo, whom we personally visit and closely follow. Growing our own organic gardens and cultivating some of our ingredients was a natural progression – today, we plant and harvest our own herbs, edible plants, greens, medicinal herbs, edible flowers, and some vegetables and fruits. We also raise free-range chickens for eggs and goats for fresh milk.

Since 2015, we have cultivated all the herbs and vegetables served on our menu in our own gardens. We believe that harvests, seasons, and producers should determine what we cook, not the other way around. This is why we don’t have a fixed menu. We create seasonal menus according to the daily or monthly availability of ingredients. In addition to weekly specials listed on the board, we offer 4- or 6-course menus for a more immersive experience of our concept.

Our menu is 100% organic and seasonal, featuring ingredients grown in our organic gardens or sourced from small, artisanal producers around the state of São Paulo. Over 60% of our menu is plant-based, and all meats or animal products come from organic, sustainable farms. Eggs and fresh goat milk also come directly from our garden.

All herbs, vegetables, eggs, and goat milk are sourced directly from our organic farm. However, we believe in circular systems of consumption and production, and self-sufficiency doesn’t necessarily mean sustainability. We want people in rural areas to stay connected to the land; that’s why we’ve spent over a decade building a network of hundreds of organic and artisanal farmers who work the land with care and respect, providing their products directly to us. We also purchase from leading institutes that promote direct farm-to-table connections. Our supplier list is available upon request.

Our team visits the garden at the start of each week to oversee planting, harvest, and collaborate on the week’s menu, guided by availability and the seasons.

We use whole ingredients, whether animal or plant-based. From the milk, we create butter, cream, and whey. We experiment with new ways to use ingredients and explore unconventional plants, such as medicinal herbs and edible plants that grow spontaneously in our garden.

We use only fresh milk from our goats or from cows raised by friends, ensuring we know how these animals are fed and treated. We also make our own plant-based milks from coconuts, seeds, grains, or nuts. Any remnants from straining these plant-based milks are turned into flour for recipes like cakes, cookies, and bread. Leftover whey from our yogurts, butters, and creams is reused in recipes like rice, dulce de leche, ferments, and sauces, and also serves as fertilizer for the garden.

We work exclusively with artisanal, sustainable, and seasonal fishing, preferring small fish over large ones. Most processes are handled by us, from dulce de leche to tucupi, nut flour to ferments.

Our bread undergoes long, natural fermentation and is made with ancient grains, cassava flour, heirloom cornmeal, and various upcycled ingredients such as peels, vegetables, plant-based milk, and coffee grounds.

In addition to greens, edible herbs, native plants, and vegetables, we also cultivate medicinal herbs, which we dry in the shade. These include picão, plantain, guaco, pennyroyal, mint, erva baleeira, boldo, mulberry leaf, pitanga leaf, and many others. These herbs are available for purchase in our store, with instructions on each herb’s usage. Every new season, we prepare seasonal infusions and organic cachaça-based tinctures for the menu.

All grains used in the kitchen are soaked in an acidic medium for at least 24 hours before use. Nuts are soaked in a saline medium for at least 8 hours. This process makes the food more digestible and nutritionally available. We make various preserves and ferments to use ingredients beyond their fresh state, enhance digestibility, boost flavor, and add the nutritional benefits of fermentation to our menus. Our preserved items include lacto-fermented, salt-cured, honey-fermented, oil-preserved, vinegar-pickled, jams, yogurt, clotted cream, vinegar, kefir, and puba.

In our kitchen, we use organic, heirloom, and family-grown beans sourced from farmers who revive traditional seeds, including varieties like paquinha, rosinha, guandu, rajado, and enxofre. The rice is organically high-altitude grown in the Serra da Mantiqueira and biodynamically managed varieties from Rio Grande do Sul.

Only heirloom corn is used in our kitchen. Some we plant ourselves and use fresh, while others we purchase from small producers who preserve family and traditional corn seeds. Our cornmeal is artisanally stone-milled by Sadi, a farmer and researcher of native heirloom corn varieties in Rio Grande do Sul. Our popcorn kernels and corn flours are also produced by small farmers and seed guardians from across the country.

Homemade Soap with Reused Oil from Our Kitchen:

All the oil used in our kitchen is repurposed in the garden, where it is transformed into homemade soap. We use only herbs and leaves from our garden, as well as coffee grounds and eggshells collected from our bar and kitchen. With papaya leaves and herbs, we make a lightening soap, and with coffee grounds and eggshells, we create an abrasive soap. We use our soaps to wash napkins, cloths, dishes, and glasses, minimizing the use of high-impact cleaning products and reusing various ingredients that would otherwise be discarded.

Circular System:

We dedicate much of our time to using and reusing ingredients, both in and outside the kitchen. We strive to make the most of food, repurpose, and compost. Ingredients we don’t use in our menu feed us at the restaurant or are repurposed into new products. Some of this also becomes natural food for our animals, including goats, chickens, dogs, and cats. Ultimately, any remaining waste goes to composting: we have compost bins in our garden and a worm farm at the restaurant. Eggshells, coffee grounds, used oil, citrus peels, vegetable scraps, and leftover wine all have a purpose and are transformed into something new.

Alongside our network of organic producers, we collaborate with friends who collect market surplus, holding group efforts to “rescue” bumper crops, excess produce, imperfect vegetables, and returns from large retailers.

We replaced our electrical system with a more efficient one and installed solar panels to heat water – our goal is to switch entirely to solar energy for the restaurant within the next few years. We are also gradually installing water collectors and building a green roof, which will house our microgreens garden and educational space.

Our organic garden supplies the restaurant. By maintaining a circular system of production and consumption, nothing goes to waste. We use, reuse, and, as a last resort, compost. This composting is done in-house, in our garden, and later used as fertilizer for new crops. We have compost bins and worm farms. Fertilizers are made from kitchen vegetable scraps that would otherwise be discarded, as well as pruning waste, leaves, animal bedding, and manure from our chickens and goats.

Eggshells, coffee grounds, used cooking oil, fruit and vegetable peels, leftover wine in bottles – everything is utilized and transformed. Items that don’t make it to the menu nourish our team or are repurposed into new products, like pestos, flours, jams, extracts, and ferments. Some of this also becomes natural feed for our animals: goats, chickens, dogs, and cats.

Vegetable peels become biomass or return to dishes as garnishes. Stalks are lacto-fermented into pickles. Leaves and greens become green extracts for broths, sauces, or brunch juices. Crispy pumpkin seeds finish dishes, dried papaya seeds turn into seasoning. Herbs and greens transform into oils and pestos. Medicinal herbs are used for infusions and tinctures. Unconventional plants become food. Onion peels are used in medicinal infusions. Citrus peels become infusions and cleaning products.

We make vinegar from the leftover wine served at tables. We reserve coffee grounds for baking cakes, breads, flours, and cold infusions with cacao and lemon peels. We dry and separate citrus peels for infusions, sweets, and preserves, or for cleaning products we make ourselves. Used oil is turned into soap, made with papaya leaves from our garden. Grounds also serve as fertilizer, and vinegar is used for preserves and cleaning.

The leftover pulp from strained plant milks is turned into flour and reused in recipes for cakes and breads. Milk whey is made into dulce de leche, sauces, or fertilizer for the garden. With onion peels, we create medicinal infusions. All eggshells are saved, dried, and ground into a powder used to supplement the garden, our food, or animal feed.

We separate all recyclable materials and take them to neighborhood recycling centers. We even make artisanal paper for the store using used paper that would otherwise go to waste. Corks are repurposed to fill cardboard boxes when shipping wine.

Contact us:

enoteca@saintvinsaint.com.br | lis@saintvinsaint.com.br

@enotecasaintvinsaint | @liscereja