Meritíssimo · Wachusett Mountain
Nineteen minutes down Route 2: coffee and warm bread before the first lift, and hot Brazilian caldos when you come down frozen.
Wachusett is twelve miles from our door and the drive is one road — Route 2. That makes us a realistic stop on a ski day in both directions, which is not true of most places in Fitchburg.
We open at 7:00 am, before most kitchens in the area. Bread comes out of the oven first, together with pão de queijo and coffee. It is a better start to a ski morning than a gas station, and it is faster than the lodge cafeteria.
If you are driving up with a full car, take salgados for the road — coxinha, risole, empada and pastel. They hold heat, they do not leak, and you can eat one with gloves on in the lift line.
This is the part we would actually drive back for: caldos, the Brazilian soups. Thick, hot, and made for exactly this kind of afternoon. We make them year round and add more options through the winter. On the plate side, the hot buffet runs from 12:00 to 3:30 pm, priced by the pound — rice, beans, farofa, grilled meats — and there is always the prato feito, the everyday Brazilian plate.
At night the pizza oven is on. Brazilian-style: thin crust, calabresa sausage, chicken with catupiry.
A lot of the people who work and ski around Wachusett are Brazilian, and most miss the same things: pão de sal in the morning, salgado in the afternoon, brigadeiro and pudim on the way out. We have all of it, made in house, and you can order in Portuguese.
From the mountain, take Route 2 east toward Fitchburg and exit at John Fitch Highway. We are at number 377, in the Market Basket plaza — parking at the door, no downtown traffic.
Order before you drive down. We will have it hot and bagged at the counter.
Order online See the menu (781) 973-026819 minutes — 12 miles straight down Route 2 from the mountain to 377 John Fitch Hwy in Fitchburg. It is the simplest drive there is: Route 2 the whole way.
Yes. We open at 7:00 am, with fresh bread, pão de queijo and coffee — early enough to eat before a first-chair morning. You can also call ahead on (781) 973-0268 and pick it up ready.
Caldos — Brazilian soups. We make caldos all year, and the list gets longer in winter. The other answer is the hot lunch buffet — rice, beans and grilled meat, served by the pound from 12:00 to 3:30 pm.
Yes, and salgados are built for it: coxinha, risole, empada and pastel travel well and are easy to eat with gloves on.
Yes — falamos português. A lot of the Brazilian community who work and ski around Wachusett already eat here.
Since October 11, 1994
Argemiro left the truck behind to be near his children. Salomé cooked the first plate — two reais and fifty cents. Since 1994, the same family serves the same food, now in Fitchburg too.
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