Iara Celebrates the Exquisite Abundance of the Amazon Rainforest

1. It’s been a long road for Mendes.

Originally from Brazil, Mendes immigrated to the U.S. when he was younger and got his start in the food industry at the age of 15. Most recently, he was the chef de cuisine at the perpetually packed Fort Greene hot spot Theodora, which was the first time he’d worked in a “casual” kitchen, he says. Prior to that, he cooked at fine-dining restaurants such as Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, The Fulton by Jean-Georges, and The Modern.

Now, he’s venturing out on his own for the first time with Iara. Mendes has been working on the concept in one form or another since 2023, when he visited the Amazon under less-than-ideal circumstances.

“My first trip to the Amazon was when my dad passed away,” Mendes says. “That’s when I discovered the surface of what the rainforest was. I came back to New York super inspired.”

Upon his return to New York, he remembers feeling “like a little kid,” running to his chef and industry friends to tell them about what he’d found and tasted there.

Since then, he’s been back several times for stints that have been as long as seven months, trying ingredients, meeting purveyors, setting up distributors, and conducting research and development for what would eventually become Iara.

2. Expect ingredients you might not see elsewhere.

Many of the ingredients you’ll find on the menu are, at best, difficult to find in the states, with a focus on spices and plants native to the Amazon and Brazil.

This includes items like jambu, a leafy green herb that Mendes says causes a tingling sensation when it’s eaten. Tucupi, a yellow sauce made from cassava root, is turned into hot sauce and offered at every table, and you’ll also find it in ceviche, moqueca, cocktails, and more. Spices like cumaru (likened to Brazilian vanilla) and puxuri (aka “Brazilian nutmeg”) season signatures, too.

Diners can also expect to see açai (“not like the bowls people eat after their workout,” Mendes jokes) used as part of a savory dressing in the charcoal-grilled seasonal greens, and in the ketchup that accompanies the cassava fries.

“When I came back to New York City [after spending time in the Amazon], I just started testing out the dishes that I had in my mind after years of fine dining, with the [new] access to these crazy ingredients,” Mendes says.

3. Expect Moqueca, pão de queijo, picanha, and Tucupi Martinis.

In practice, ingredients that may be unfamiliar to New York City diners come together at Iara in relatively familiar ways. There’s moqueca, the classic Brazilian fish stew, which simmers its Bahian red snapper in the tucupi. The 10-ounce picanha steak celebrates the Brazilian tradition of enjoying this particular cut of meat on Sunday, and arrives with the aforementioned cassava fries and the açai ketchup. And the signature tapioca and tuna starter, which Mendes likens to crispy tuna rice, twists that dish by using tapioca instead of rice and seasoning it with biquinho pepper.

Mendes aims to shake up the way New Yorkers eat with the food and ingredients from Brazil and the Amazon.

“[We want to] bring in this New York City way of eating,” Mendes says. “I’m bringing influences from places I’ve worked before and just adding these ingredients from Brazil. At Theodora, we used wood-fire grills, but here we’ll be using charcoal. Everyone in New York is in love with dips, so I’m doing pão de queijo with [smoky eggplant] dip.”

For dessert, the Brazilian flan, pudim, will feature rotating seasonal flavors with pumpkin-spice for this fall. But no matter what, diners can end each meal with a Brigadeiro bite, also known as a Brazilian truffle.

Affordability is important to Mendes as well, with most of the dishes on the menu falling below $20. “We want to be an accessible restaurant for people to try a new culture,” he says. Dishes are meant to be shared.

The beverage menu was curated by a fellow Theodora alumnus, Calvin Czypinski. There’s a focus placed on cachaça and, of course, Amazonian ingredients. Cocktails like the Tucupi Martini with gin and preserved lemon brine, a classic caipirinha, and the Iara, with cupuaçu, cachaça, and Brazilian vanilla honey, sit alongside wines by the glass and beer, “served at -5 degrees Celsius, as they do in Brazil.”

4. The Amazon comes to life off the plate, too.

Mendes’ trips to the Amazon weren’t always just for ingredients — elements of the restaurant’s decor and interior design also made their way home with him to New York.

There are bags of spices; a tipiti, which is an indigenous tool used to extract fermented cassava juice; and dried fruits on the walls of the space, plus a tree structure running throughout that ’s used to hang paintings and other decorations. Mendes commissioned custom tables from a maker he found by chance on line, made from pine and maple, and sourced serving utensils from Brazil. The walls are also adorned with hand-painted murals by Brazilian artist Cleyton Alexandre, one of which can be found in the bathroom against the soundtrack the rainforest.

The dining room features an open kitchen and seats a total of 60, which includes a 13-seat chef’s counter as well as a private dining room for up to 8 guests.

“Everyone can see the kitchen from every corner,” Mendes says.

5. Finally, who doesn’t love a mermaid spirit namesake?

When Mendes was deciding on a name for Iara, he asked Tomer Blechman, the chef-owner of Theodora, how he had chosen the name for his restaurant.

Blechman told him that the spot was named for a Greek goddess, which led Mendes to start investigating Amazonian spirits that might also make for a good eponym.

“Iara is an Amazonian mermaid from the mythology culture,” Mendes says. “We thought, ‘This is it. This is perfect.’”

Iara is open Tuesday through Saturday from 5 to 11 p.m.

Ellie Plass is a freelance writer based in Brooklyn. Follow her on Instagram and X. Follow Resy, too.