Pig’s feet and lingerie. Salt cod and yucca flour. International phone cards, the latest top-40 Brazilian pop music, soccer socks, and new bibs for the baby. Between all that and the glittering gold jewelry, intriguing round tins of guava paste, bossa nova beats, and the signs posted in Portuguese – it’s a bit overwhelming to walk into North Star, tucked into the Triangle in Edgartown. But take it and enjoy the ride, because it’s like being a tourist in a foreign land. Without traveling at all. Named after the star that helps people find their way, this shop is one-stop-convenience-meets-department-store shopping – it’s pure Brazilian, Vineyard-style.
Opened first as a travel agency by the lithe and business-savvy Elio Silva, North Star morphed into its current incarnation – a cross between a bodega and an epicurean Cumby’s – over the last twelve years. A proud resident of Martha’s Vineyard for seventeen years, Elio is a successful local entrepreneur with quick, dynamic energy and street smarts. As a Brazilian immigrant from Cuete Velho in Minas Gerais where many of the Vineyard’s Brazilians come from, Elio knows his clientele and speaks in authoritative, broad statements about his customer base.
“Brazilians don’t like Brazilian rice,” he says with a laugh. Thai jasmine rice, on the other hand, is stacked in 20-pound bags at the back of the store, which sells about 400 pounds a month. Elio exclaims that Brazilians must eat more rice than everyone in Asia.
He also explains that Brazilian women are more inclined to being vaidosas – that’s Portuguese for people who take care of their personal appearance. North Star stocks a hefty supply of cosmetics – perfumes, lotions, nail polish. He also sells quail eggs for men; as Elio explains, they are a remedy for male impotence. Something to keep in mind before ordering from Sephora or Dean and Deluca’s before your next cocktail party.
Elio has developed a unique philosophy about the merchandise he carries – it’s actually not as random as it first appears. “It’s about creating local connections and making people feel comfortable when they are so far away from home,” he explains. Elio conscientiously sources as many products as he can that are found close to the Vineyard and made by other Brazilians.
He gets fresh bread delivered from the Brazilian Casal Bakery in Cambridge twice a week. One of his best-selling loaves was deceiving to my American eye and palate – it looked like a package of New England–style hot dog buns topped with Velveeta cheese – though it’s a soft, lightly sweet, moist Portuguese roll with a decadent, coconut-flavored custard cream baked in.
Coffee connoisseurs on the Vineyard know that Elio also knows his beans, roasts, and grinds. Before North Star came to be, he owned Martha’s Vineyard Coffee Company in Tisbury. Now, he has a wide selection of coffees located in the back aisle by the bags of wood charcoal. The Café do Brasil brand of coffee that Elio is most pleased with comes in small, eight-ounce red foil packets. He stocks only pre-ground coffee, because “Brazilians don’t like to grind their beans,” he says. The extra-strong robusta beans are roasted and packed by the Brazilian Dominatto Coffee Company in South Yarmouth.
Elio also carries Brazilian products from where many of his customers come – Mantenópolis, in the state of Espírito Santo, located about 375 miles north and slightly west of Rio de Janeiro. Small bottles of guava, mango, or grape juice by Mais are not only good juice (my kids love them) and made with up to 50 percent fruit pulp and real sugar (not high fructose corn syrup), but many of the Vineyard Brazilians’ families back in Brazil either work on the Mais plantations or in the bottling plants. For Elio, this feels like it keeps the connections strong and helps both economies, here and in Brazil.
North Star’s all-encompassing inventory is truly an Island creation designed for Brazilians. But it’s not the only Brazil-meets-Martha’s-Vineyard shop. Unfortunately for some of these little stores, they sprout up like mushrooms at midnight under a full moon and then – poof – they’re gone. Others may not have the eclectic inventory: Tropical Bakery has two locations – the larger Tropical, located in Edgartown next to Donaroma’s, is an Internet cafe. It has a couple of indoor tables to sit at while you sip strong coffee, nibble on a gooey chocolate bonbon rolled in sprinkles, and watch Brazilian soaps or soccer on the flat-screen TV. This location also serves hot breakfasts, great burgers, and milk shakes, as well as daily specials and the always-wide array of sweet breads and desserts like flan, rice pudding, meringues, and cookies. The smaller outpost (no grill but shampoo and soap) is located on Lagoon Pond Road, across from the Vineyard Haven Post Office.
Then there’s Cantinho do Brasil (translation: Little Corner of Brazil), marked by a bright yellow sign off State Road in Vineyard Haven. The Cantinho is behind Woodland shopping area. Drive down the bumpy dirt road for good deals on hot food as well as lingerie and Western Union service.
For about $5, you can get the daily special to-go plate of rice, beans, shredded salad, and meat – either pork, beef, chicken, or kabobs. My personal favorite is the croquettes – teardrop-shaped balls filled with shredded chicken, perfectly seasoned – for $1.25 each.
It’s not likely you’ll find shops like these back in Brazil. In the towns where the Vineyard’s Brazilians come from, shopping culture is still small and specialized – like it used to be here. It’s “the butcher, the baker, the candlestick-maker” model. These businesses are our newest immigrants’ answer to Target. They’re just micro in scale, locally owned and operated, and full of everything you could want from home.
• North Star, 241 Edgartown Road, Edgartown, 508-816-1321.
• Tropical Bakery, 266 Upper Main Street, Edgartown, 508-627-3773, and 10 Lagoon Pond Road, Vineyard Haven, 508-696-4999.
• Cantinho do Brasil (Little Corner of Brazil), behind the Woodland shopping area, State Road, Vineyard Haven, 508-696-4860.
-