Brazo opens in Portsmouth

As Phelps Dieck stood outside her new restaurant on Pleasant Street on a recent afternoon, a man strolled past and informed her that he had eaten there over the weekend and thought it was fantastic. She thanked him and smiled graciously, standing beneath a bright red and orange sign emblazoned with the word “Brazo.”

Dieck is the co-owner and executive chef of Brazo, a Latin American restaurant that opened its doors on Aug. 24. Dieck and co-owner Deb Weeks also own The Green Monkey, which is located directly across the street from Brazo, between State and Court streets in Portsmouth. Those who enter Brazo will hardly recognize the former location of 43 Degrees North, which briefly reinvented itself as KNR’s Wood Grill before shutting down this spring. Dieck and Weeks decided to tear down the old bar and build a new, 24-foot coppertop bar on the opposite side of the establishment. The architect implemented a number of curved features throughout the bar and dining area, including arched cutouts in a dividing wall.

Visitors will also notice changes to the building’s exterior, which was repainted and adorned with the flashy Brazo sign. “Our challenge with designing this restaurant was to kind of erase what 43 Degrees was and erase in the minds of everybody what that restaurant was,” Dieck said.

Ever since she opened The Green Monkey in 2003, Dieck has planned to open a second business. The decision to start a Latin-themed restaurant was based on the desire to create a dining experience that was missing from the Port City.
“We definitely wanted to open another restaurant in town. The opportunity to buy this building presented itself, and we needed to choose a concept that was going to be unique to Portsmouth,” Dieck said. “We felt it was important not to compete with any of the other restaurants that are already in town, so we chose a Latin theme.”

The owners hired Gabby Ortiz, formerly of Isis on Penhallow, as their chef de cuisine. A native of Puerto Rico, Ortiz helps to ensure that each meal has a distinctly Latin flavor. “He’s able to authenticate my ideas,” Dieck said. “I write the menu that’s going to be sound and be appealing to the public, and he helps me to make things very authentic, so it’s a good match.”
The menu features “entradas” such as corn meal crusted chili relleño, which is described as “a blend of Cuban rice, goat cheese, tomatoes and roasted corn salsa, stuffed in a sweet chipotle crema-roasted poblano pepper.” There are also “aperitivos” such as duck confit empanadas, described as “shredded confit duck cooked with raisins, sweet onions and olives piled in a hot, flaky crust with a pickled jalapeño and cherry mojo.”

Phelps also designed an extensive drink menu with nine different specialty cocktails, all utilizing Latin or South American liquors, such as tequila, rum, Pisco and Cachacha. The menu represents traditions from throughout the continent to our south, with meals based in Peru, Argentina, Cuba and elsewhere. “We try to hit that whole region, not just Latin America, but we venture into South America, as well,” Phelps said.

Brazo uses as many local ingredients as possible, getting all its meat and fish from area vendors. Phelps also makes a point of using organic products whenever possible, and she has seen the accessibility of organic items increase each year. “It’s just my preference as a chef to use it. That’s how I cook at home, so I wouldn’t do anything different for our customers,” she said.
A graduate of the New England Culinary Institute, Dieck is responsible for overseeing the menu at both Brazo and The Green Monkey. Since the latter opened four years ago, she has seen significant changes occur in Portsmouth’s dining scene. As the city has grown, so too have its options for fine dining. Friendly competition between restaurants is beneficial for everyone—the success of one restaurant feeds into the success of others as more diners head out to Portsmouth.

“We all try to get along as restaurateurs and owners and chefs. It’s kind of a camaraderie thing. We’re all in it to make Portsmouth a better place,” Phelps said. “That’s the goal, is to make Portsmouth a busier, more vibrant place and make it a destination location for people to come and eat.”

So far, Brazo seems to be accomplishing this goal. Opening at 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, the restaurant was packed almost every night in its first week of existence. Phelps is considering adding live music sometime in the future, once the bustle of getting started has died down, and she expects good things in the future.

“We’ve been jammed. It’s definitely exceeded our expectations. I guess we can only go up from here, so it’s good,” she said.