At most restaurants the framed photos on display usually speak volumes about what’s important to the owners.
At Restaurante Cesaria in Dorchester, a scan of the autographed shots lining the entryway announce that the music of Cape Verde ranks with grilling the linguica or
polvo(octopus) just right.
A who’s who of Cape Verdean music stars smile from the frames. Maria de Barros. Bana. Tito Paris. Fantcha. Bau. And, of course, the restaurant’s namesake, legendary Cape Verdean songstress Cesaria Evora, who dined there when it opened four years ago.
Performances by some of the genre’s biggest names have made the comfortable Bowdoin Street restaurant/club a destination for those who love all things Cape Verdean. One of that island nation’s most acclaimed young stars, 27-year-old Lisbon-based singer and guitarist Sara Tavares, will perform Monday night. On her infectious new CD, “Balance,” she infuses her songs with a mix of Angolan and Portuguese slang, Cape Verdean Creole and English, while adding tastes of Afrobeat, reggae and jazz to her swaying Cape Verdean rhythms.
Tony Barros, co-owner of Restaurante Cesaria along with his cousins John and Casimiro Barros and Jose Fonseca, books the bands. Local Cape Verdean acts are showcased Thursday through Saturday night and for Sunday brunch. Once a month, mostly on Mondays, international stars perform in a space that expands to 130 seats.
“Our plan from the beginning was to bring in artists who people don’t normally see here,” said Tony Barros. “Cape Verdean music is becoming more popular, so we attract a pretty diverse crowd.”
Credit the grandmotherly Evora, known as the Barefoot Diva, for stoking that interest. An unlikely world music hero who won a Grammy in 2004, she has introduced the world to the soulful sound of the traditional mornas of her homeland off the west coast of Africa.
On a recent Saturday night the band arrived so late that videos were projected onto a large screen showing Evora in concert, along with younger artists updating mornas and coladeras in MTV-like video clips.
“The restaurant has become a real gathering place for the people who live in the neighborhood and for people who like Cape Verdean music,” said frequent customer Ed Cook, who lives a few blocks away and is head of Uphams Corner Charter School.
“People will just get up and dance next to their tables. That happened when I brought my teachers a few years ago. They were Brazilians and they couldn’t stand sitting.”
That sense of the restaurant becoming a friendly, multigenerational gathering place has taken hold through the years in a community that has been wracked by violence. Everything from youth soccer fund-raisers to meetings of local politicians take place at Restaurante Cesaria.
“They’re making a positive contribution to the community,” said Roxbury resident and architect Cesar DaSilva, another frequent visitor.
“Once in awhile, we see kids come in here who hang out on the street,” said Barros. “Once they feel the atmosphere - the music, the food - I think it impacts them and they see that maybe there’s something else out there. It makes us proud to see the young folks doing something positive.”
