None of the business owners I spoke to are quite sure why the neighborhood took off. Several people said they opened their businesses in the neighborhood because there were already Brazilians there. Rodrigo Garcia, an employee of 30 years at Cafe Brasil who took over the restaurant after the owners retired last year, believes his restaurant jump-started the community when it opened there in 1991. A 2014 Los Angeles Times article pinpoints the raucous parties during the 1994 World Cup at another nearby restaurant, Zubumba, which closed after the owner’s tragic death.

In the ensuing decades, restaurants have come and gone, but the neighborhood remains a unique destination for Brazilian food in the city. Visitors can sample Brazilian pizza, sandwiches, homestyle cooking, and, of course, barbecue.

Since the pandemic, however, the rising cost of Culver City has made it harder to launch new businesses. Pedroca’s Burgers, which operated out of a shared kitchen in the Brazilian Mall, wasn’t able to find a space in Culver City. Instead, this month owners Pedro and Thiago Carvalho opened further south in Lawndale, slinging Brazilian burgers, piled high with the traditional corn and potato sticks.