A cozy Winkler café that offers a taste of Brazil in the heart of Canada marked its one-year anniversary this fall.
Minas Café & Eatery has been open for business since late 2023, and they continue to make a name for themselves, both from their location at 1027 Mountain Avenue and through the sale of their tasty Brazilian finger foods in grocery stores across southern Manitoba.
Owners Samuel and Bruna Campos say they’ve been encouraged by the response, and have loved introducing people to the Brazilian coffee and sweet and savory dishes that are their speciality.
“It’s gone well. We notice that everyone that tries our Brazilian flavours, our Brazilian foods, they love it,” says Samuel. “The challenge always is being in the [minds] of people when they think about food.”
“It’s interesting to see how people are open to try new food here,” says Bruna, pointing to menu favourites like their pastel (a thin-crust fried pie stuffed with fillings like beef or cheese) and bolinho (a crispy dumpling appetizer) dishes.
Bruna and Samuel have been in Canada for nearly seven years now, moving first to Morden and then Winkler.
“We came to Canada looking for a better place for our kids,” Samuel shares.
An entrepreneur at heart, Samuel has been involved in a few different businesses here in recent years. He also runs a Portuguese podcast, interviewing immigrant entrepreneurs about the challenges of running a business in a new country. Bruna, meanwhile, worked in fitness back home in Brazil.
The restaurant world has been something new for the couple, with Bruna taking the lead.
“When we moved here, I was at home [with the kids],” Bruna says. “So I started making food, bar food, from Brazil, for the family and for friends. And it did well. So I started making them and selling them, just from home.”
Her first product was pão de queijo, a Brazilian cheese bread that proved to be a big hit.
“I made them frozen and I started selling them out,” Bruna recalls of setting up tables at farmers’ markets and vendor fairs near and far. “That’s how I started in the food industry.”
They found a great deal of success in Winnipeg, especially.
“There’s a big Brazilian community there, a huge community,” Bruna shares.
As they grew, they began to look for a place outside their home where Bruna could cook.
“That’s how we found this place,” she says.
The building, tucked in amongst a residential area down the street from Winkler Elementary School, has been a lot of things over the years—a café, a pottery studio, and, going way back, a neighbourhood grocery store. With its commercial kitchen, it seemed the perfect fit for the growing business.
“In the beginning, I wanted only the kitchen, and then Samuel came up with the idea of opening a space for the public and selling our own stuff, ready to go. And here we are,” says Bruna.
“The people around here, the neighbours, were asking constantly, ‘When are you going to be open for customers?” Samuel says, chuckling. “This made us want to open as a restaurant or a coffee shop.”
They offer a little bit of everything.
“We could be considered a snack shop, basically,” Bruna says of the finger foods on their menu. “But now we have meals as well. We have soup, other foods, all Brazilian style and taste.”
They also have a few shelves filled with imported coffee and other groceries from Brazil—a real taste of home for the growing Brazilian community in the region—and a small play area to keep the kids busy while their parents enjoy a snack or a coffee.
“We’re trying to be a place where they feel like they’re in Brazil,” Samuel says, noting the café’s name—Minas—is a nod to the state in Brazil they come from, as is the mountain in their logo. “We’re friendly people, we love to talk, treat people well. When they come in, I want them to see a different atmosphere, a really friendly place.”
You can also find their products under the “B Snack” brand in grocery stores, including at Gardenland Co-op in Morden and Winkler.
