How beloved neighbourhood restaurant Dez Prá Uma evolved into a 12-shop food business
We browse the shelves of a Lisbon staple that has expanded into a city-wide institution – and crucially, without losing its original spirit.
At Dez Prá Uma, Mafalda Travassos’s restaurant on Lisbon’s Rua Castilho, the lunch rush would always begin at 12.50 – hence its name, which means “Ten to One”. Opened in 2003, the restaurant was “always bursting at the seams”, says Travassos. When regulars increasingly began to request takeaway food, Travassos made the decision in 2015 to turn the restaurant into a business offering fresh and frozen meals. Now Dez Prá Uma has 12 shops across the city.
The packaged servings of bacalhau espiritual, croquettes and arroz de pato that fill the Dez Prá Uma shops are mostly made following family recipes. Everything is prepared in one kitchen in Campo de Ourique, overseen by chef Dinha dos Santos.
The shops, created by interior designer Marta Lucena, have a friendly, distinctly Portuguese feel with their green tiles, old weighing scales and flour tins. Travassos personally sources these decorative pieces at antiques fairs in the historic town of Estremoz.
Over the years, Travassos’s four children have spent summers helping with the business, clearing tables and packing orders at Christmas. Now they have taken over the day-to-day running of Dez Prá Uma, with plans for more outposts in Lisbon and the business’s first in Porto. Travassos’s advice to the next generation draws deeply on her experiences. “Growth has to be built on good roots, not for its own sake,” she says.
dezprauma.com
