From the Meritíssimo menu · Fitchburg, Massachusetts
Our first plate lunch: R$2.50 in a home kitchen in 1994
Before Fitchburg, before the bakery counter and before the name Meritíssimo, there was a kitchen inside a family home. Our story begins there, in Nova Era, Minas Gerais, on October 11, 1994. The first plate lunch cost two reais and fifty centavos.
Why the kitchen opened
Argemiro worked as a truck driver. Leaving the road meant being closer to his children. Together with Salomé, he opened the first kitchen at home. This was the beginning of the family business that would eventually reach Massachusetts—not the opening date of the restaurant in Fitchburg.
What was on that first plate?
Our family account records rice, beans, steak, eggs and salad, prepared to order. The R$2.50 price is part of that memory. It is not a current offer or a price for our American menu. The complete meal mattered: a customer could sit down and have lunch without assembling several separate orders.
How much was R$2.50 in US dollars then?
Approximately US$3, using an indicative late-1994 rate of about R$0.84 per US$1: 2.50 ÷ 0.84 ≈ 2.98. The IMF documents the real trading near that level toward the end of 1994. This is a period estimate, not the exact exchange rate on the first sale date, and it is not adjusted for inflation or today’s purchasing power.
The story reaches Fitchburg
In 2025, the family opened in Fitchburg at 377 John Fitch Hwy. Today, restaurant meals share an address with bakery items and Brazilian pizza. The menu has grown, but the first PF still belongs in the story: it connects what we serve now to a decision made around a family kitchen more than three decades ago.