Photo: Courtesy of Ground Midia
After opening locations in Monaco and Paris, Café Lacoste’s first Latin American location has arrived at Shopping Cidade Jardim. The dining space symbolizes the brand’s expansion beyond fashion, bringing together the design and lifestyle of the French fashion house.
As part of a global strategy to promote the brand through the symbols that define it, the café serves as a gathering place where customers can socialize. The brand chose São Paulo to host its Latin American location because it is one of Brazil’s leading hubs for fashion, culture, and luxury consumption.
Overall, the space offers a new consumer experience, while also directing foot traffic to the Lacoste store, also located in Cidade Jardim.
However, this is not Lacoste’s first foray into hospitality. Before opening permanent locations, the brand had already made its mark with the Club Lacoste concept at tennis and golf tournaments in New York, Melbourne, Paris, Deauville, and Miami.
The São Paulo location will be permanent, like the one in Paris, where the café features various elements of the French lifestyle, coffee culture, and the sporting legacy offormer tennis player René Lacoste, the brand’s founder.
The Lacoste Café Experience
Photo: Instagram/Lacoste Brasil
With an ambiance steeped in French sophistication and immersed in the world of tennis, the decor incorporates elements from the Roland-Garros tournament, which is directly linked to the founder’s career in the sport.
The color palette reflects the brand’s identity in every detail. It highlights Lacoste’s iconic green, combined with the terracotta tones of clay tennis courts and the white of traditional polo shirts.
Maritime wood covers the furniture and takes center stage visually, lending elegance and a contemporary feel to the atmosphere.
The menu and culinary highlights
Italian restaurateur Riccardo Giraudi developed the global gastronomic concept. In São Paulo, operations are led by Gelma Franco and Il Barista, a pioneering barista brand in Brazil.
Served on Limoges porcelain—a global benchmark in French tradition—the menu features French classics and Instagram-worthy items. In fact, exclusive to Brazil, it will also feature a coffee made from a blend of Brazilian beans.
In addition, the menu features the best of Frenchviennoiserie, such as the traditional croissant and the pistachio croissant, pain au chocolat, and gougères (the French cousin of our beloved pão de queijo). The menu also offers sandwiches and quick meals, including freshly made croque-monsieur.
Photo: Courtesy of Ground Midia
On the beverage menu, Café Lacoste features signature recipes such as the Eau de Croco, which blends coconut water, matcha, and ginger. It also offers smoothies and functionalboosters .
The menu is filled with items customized with brand elements, such as the famous crocodile. Even the cups, cans, and packaging are inspired by tennis ball tubes.
Finally, the most famous item—and the perfect subject for social media photos—is the Polo Cake. These cakes feature green frosting, an embossed collar, and a crocodile design that mimics the polo shirt, the brand’s most iconic piece.
However, it’s worth noting that the menu may change throughout the year to reflect the seasonality of ingredients and offer visitors new culinary discoveries.
Dining and Cooking