That's Bananas brings Brazilian street food to Baseline Road
Sisters serving pastéis, coxinhas, and 150 cans of condensed milk weekly at their new café.
Walk into That's Bananas on Baseline Road and you step into a space that smells like home — specifically, home for two sisters who left Brazil and are now building community in Ottawa.
Patrícia and Beatriz grew up in Itu, a small city near São Paulo. Patrícia arrived in Canada in 2019 as a student; Beatriz, trained as a pastry cook, followed in 2021 and spent her first years selling Brazilian sweets from farmers-market stalls and rented kitchen space. When a storefront on Baseline opened up, they seized it.
The menu bridges two worlds of Brazilian comfort food: fried snacks sold in bars and markets, and cakes a grandmother might bake on Sunday. Pastéis — thin-dough pastries flash-fried until the shell shatters at first bite — are their signature. Fillings rotate: creamy shredded chicken, warm banana folded into dulce de leche. They crack some before service and remake them. It's worth the extra effort.
Pão de queijo, the cheesy bread that sells out fastest, and coxinha — a teardrop-shaped chicken croquette bound in potato dough and crisped in panko — anchor the savoury side. Specials change daily, drawn from their grandmothers' recipe books: meatloaf, lasagna, sweet rice, pulled pork piled on white rolls under melted cheese.
Beatriz makes the desserts. Her bolo de cenoura — carrot cake — blends raw carrot straight into the batter, skips the cinnamon and nutmeg, and bakes to a startling orange, topped with melted chocolate. It doesn't exist in Brazil in the Canadian spiced form, she says. Her flan — custard baked with eggs, milk, and condensed milk — sets firm and sturdy.
Condensed milk is the undisputed star, burning through around 150 cans a week. It sweetens the brigadeiros (chocolate truffles given as birthday gifts) and creates the heavy-sweet base for Swiss lemonade — a drink that is, ironically, 100 per cent Brazilian (so named because Nestlé first brought condensed milk to the country). The tartness of whole blended limes cuts the sweetness perfectly.
The sisters opened for local expats — "the dream of every Brazilian who lives in Ottawa," Beatriz says — but the city has shown up in far larger numbers than expected in the first six months. The staff grew from five to eleven. Brazilians visit evenings and weekends; weekday lunch draws office workers and people walking over from Queensway-Carleton Hospital.
Patrícia, who has a one-year-old, added an enclosed play area for toddlers so parents can eat in peace. Wide windows, generous table spacing, and surrounding greenery give the café a sense of calm.
World Cup season is coming. Beatriz speaks of soccer the way many Brazilians do — close to religion. She and Patrícia plan to decorate the café and host watch parties on Brazil's match days; the first two have already sold out. They're testing a Brazilian Experience menu on Uber Eats: picanha (the rump cap Brazilian cooks prize), plated with sausage, white rice, black beans, and farofa — toasted cassava flour spooned over for crunch.
That's Bananas, 2932 Baseline Rd. Hours: Mon–Tue 7:30 a.m.–2 p.m., Wed–Fri 7:30 a.m.–7 p.m., Sat 8 a.m.–3 p.m., Sun 8 a.m.–1 p.m. Savoury bites and desserts $6–$10; specialty sandwiches $14.99; Brazilian main meals $20–$25; juices $6–$8. Wheelchair accessible.