01
THE SEAL
A CITY'S RECOGNITION OF ITS OWN LANDMARKS
The Cultural Value Seal (Selo de Valor Cultural) is granted by the City of São Paulo to establishments that, over time, have become landmarks: places that carry real affection and meaning for the people who live here.
It is awarded by CONPRESP, the municipal council for the preservation of historic, cultural and environmental heritage, following a technical assessment by the Department of Historic Heritage. Each recognized establishment receives a plaque and is added to Geosampa, the city's official digital map. The seal is reviewed every five years.
In March 2026, La Casserole joined the list.
"This recognition means that these restaurants are part of the history of our city."
TOTÓ PARENTE, MUNICIPAL SECRETARY OF CULTURE AND CREATIVE ECONOMY
02
THE HOUSE
SEVEN DECADES AT THE SAME ADDRESS
La Casserole opened in 1954, founded by a French immigrant couple, Roger and Fortunée Henry. Roger had cooked in luxury hotels; Fortunée ran a bar on Avenida São João. Together they opened one of the first authentic French bistros in São Paulo, with everything they had.
The house has never moved. It is still on Largo do Arouche, facing a flower market that has traded on the same square for more than a hundred years — two rare survivals, opposite one another, in the center of a city that tends to demolish and rebuild itself every decade.
Today the restaurant is run by the family's third generation, under an idea that became the motto of the house: um clássico sempre atual - a classic, always current.
1954
The year Roger and Fortunée Henry opened the house
1914
The flower market across the square has traded since this year
3
Generations of the same family have run the restaurant
03
AT THE TABLE
HERITAGE CLASSICS
The kitchen is classic French, with few reinterpretations: steak tartare seasoned in front of you, moules-frites, filet au poivre, duck confit in orange sauce, sole, smoked salmon. Dinner closes with crêpes Suzette, flambéed at the table.
Service from copper pans, finished in front of the guest, is a tradition the house has kept since the day it opened — and one of the reasons it became an address of history and memory.
At the back of the dining room, behind a discreet door, is Infini: a cocktail bar with a contemporary register of its own, which sits alongside the classic restaurant without imitating it.
04
THE 2026 CLASS
SIX ADDRESSES RECOGNIZED
La Casserole received the seal alongside five other São Paulo addresses. All of them join a list of more than eighty establishments across the city, some of which have been trading since the nineteenth century.
-
La Casserole
-
O Gato que Ri
-
Leiteria Ita
-
Estadão Bar & Lanches
-
Café Floresta
-
Galeria Luisa Strina
05
PRESS
IN THE NEWS
CITY OF SAO PAULO
São Paulo recognizes new establishments with the Cultural Value Seal (in Portuguese)
