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[title]The Portuguese bifana has just carved out a permanent spot in the city that never sleeps. After the roaring success at Portugal House during the football World Cup — where thousands queued just to try "the perfect meat in the perfect bread" — Mr. Bifana now has its own space at Time Out Market New York. "This story would fill five or six minutes of a podcast," warns Fernando Vaz over the phone, live from Brooklyn, where he has been busy acting as ambassador for Portugal's most famous sandwich. "Gotch-ya," we hear him say on the other end. Moments later, he turns his attention back to us. He'll spend 20 minutes more than he promised telling us the story of his American adventure.
Vaz was in Bahrain, working for TAP, when the pandemic ended his career in aviation. It would turn out to be the start of a new chapter — though he didn't know it yet. So he takes us back a few years, to when he had the chance to do an exchange in New Zealand during his Management degree at Universidade Nova de Lisboa. "That was my first eye-opener. After graduating, I started working at a kiosk on Avenida da Liberdade to save up for a trip around the world, which I did with two friends. It lasted eight months, on about ten dollars a day, camping and hitchhiking, sleeping at other people's places. When it ended, I decided to get a pilot's licence, to work in aviation," he recalls.
The dream didn't pan out, as we know, but — used to fending for himself abroad — he rolled up his sleeves, bought a tuk-tuk and struck a partnership with Solar dos Presuntos: the restaurant gave him a garage to park in, and Vaz advertised the place while driving foreigners around the capital. "I still have that tuk-tuk, though obviously I'm no longer the one driving it. But during the three years I worked in Lisbon, I noticed two things. The first was that Portugal was getting more and more popular with Americans. The second, which comes from the trips I kept taking, was that it's not easy to find traditional Portuguese cuisine abroad."
Long story short, that's eventually how Mr. Bifana was born. "I used to take foreigners to Bifanas do Afonso. I'd tell them, 'imagine yourselves in New York eating this', and the feedback was always positive. So I teamed up again with Solar dos Presuntos to come up with a recipe worthy of the dish — and here we are," he laughs. "The bifana authentically represents typical flavours of traditional Portuguese cuisine: olive oil, garlic, wine. And then there's the operational side, because I was fascinated watching Afonso — they kept coming out, one after the other, non-stop. Here, anything grab-and-go has potential. It's not like at home, where we sit down with soup, main course, bread, coffee and dessert, and sometimes still complain. Here, everything is much faster. That's why the bifana is perfect."
Duarte Vicente, general manager of Time Out Portugal, which ran Portugal House during the World Cup in the US, agrees: "Some of the most extraordinary things in food are seemingly very simple. What makes the difference is authenticity, the quality of the product, the execution, and the ability to represent a culture. That's precisely the principle behind Time Out's curation. We don't necessarily look for the most sophisticated — we look for what is genuinely good, relevant and representative of a place. The bifana carries huge Portuguese identity. It's immediately recognisable to a Portuguese person and, at the same time, simple and universal enough to be discovered and understood by someone in New York."
From Portugal to New York
When he arrived in New York in 2025, Fernando Vaz began running pop-up events in bars — including Tradesman in East Williamsburg and Time Again in Chinatown — until he finally landed a fixed spot at Ten Degrees, in the East Village. But what he really wanted was to take part in the World Cup, which ran between June and July of this year. So he pitched the idea to the Portuguese Football Federation, which brought him first to Time Out Market Union Square, then to the terrace at Time Out Market New York, where he even ended up serving former Portuguese footballers such as Beto, Jorge Andrade and Bruno Alves.
"The Time Out Market team in Brooklyn played a crucial role in shepherding the concept, reading the public's reaction, and evaluating — in very concrete terms — its ability to stay at the Market. That work was extremely important, because it gave the process a proper market assessment. We're not just talking about a Portuguese concept that gained visibility during an activation; we're talking about a concept that was tested in front of a New York audience, followed closely by the local team, and deemed strong enough to continue," explains Duarte Vicente, who believes that to stand out, it isn't always necessary to present "something more complex" — but rather a product "with personality and a story behind it".
At Mr. Bifana, it all starts with the perfect papo-seco — crisp on the outside, soft inside — ordered exclusively from a bakery in Newark. The secret of the Iberian pork lies in the seasoning: olive oil, wine, garlic and paprika, designed "one sunny morning in Lisbon, in the kitchen of Solar dos Presuntos". But with a fixed spot at Time Out Market New York, the menu had to grow.
"I took the challenge on, and we're now also serving pastéis de bacalhau, prawn rissoles, São Jorge cheese sandwiches, pastéis de nata, olives, tremoços, and open sandwiches with Portuguese tinned goods — pickled tuna, sardines in olive oil, squid stew — which lets us keep the operation simple while giving a good experience to whoever comes in. And here I am, drinking my little Delta coffee — that's the brand we serve, no one else here has it — and getting the pan ready for the bifanas," concludes Vaz, who is excited about the future of the business.
From Time Out to the world
"Portugal today has an extraordinary generation of chefs, concepts and food entrepreneurs with international potential. What is often missing isn't quality, but a platform to break in with," notes Duarte Vicente, who champions the role of brands like Time Out in creating opportunities, including exporting Portuguese talent. "We're part of a global brand with local knowledge in some of the most relevant cities in the world. That combination lets us work as a bridge between Portuguese talent and international audiences," he explains. "For us, this also reinforces the role of Time Out Portugal. We don't want to be just a media outlet or a platform that gives visibility. We want to be able to spot talent, help it grow, and — whenever it makes sense — build bridges to other markets. When a Portuguese project works internationally, it doesn't just benefit that brand. It helps build a reputation for all things Portuguese and makes the path easier for those who come next."
For Duarte Vicente, Portugal House in New York is the perfect example of what he believes can happen when a global brand like Time Out joins forces with "an institution with the scale and mobilising power of the Portuguese Football Federation, and the strategic vision of Turismo de Portugal". The idea, he tells us, was — more than creating an activation — to take Portugal to one of the most central and influential places in the world. And more than that, to leave a mark. "Portugal wasn't just in New York; it stayed in New York." The work of the Portuguese Football Federation was also crucial. Duarte Vicente highlights the teams led by João Medeiros and Pedro Ribeiro Telles, "fundamental in building and delivering this initiative", as well as "the support" of Carlos Abade, president of Turismo de Portugal, and "the vision" of Lídia Monteiro, member of the Board of Directors of the National Tourism Authority.
"There was an opportunity to build on what we had created and turn a temporary action into a Portuguese presence with permanence in an international market. And that idea also comes from a reflection I find very relevant from Turismo de Portugal: for Portuguese gastronomy to gain notoriety and be truly valued internationally, it has to be present in international markets. It's not enough to talk about it — people need to be able to taste it, try it, and build a relationship with our products, concepts and stories." That's exactly what they did with Mr. Bifana: "We went from an activation with a beginning and an end to a continued presence at Time Out Market Brooklyn, in front of New Yorkers and visitors from all over the world."
For Time Out Portugal, Duarte Vicente assures us, it isn't enough to invite people to visit the country — it's also important to take Portugal to wherever they are. "First create a relationship and an emotional connection with the destination, and then make them want to discover its origin," he says. "This is where Time Out can add a lot of value. Time Out Markets are international physical platforms, with a recognised curation and highly relevant audiences, where we can create opportunities for Portuguese brands with distinctive, authentic projects and, above all, a story to tell. Mr. Bifana shows that this path is possible. And I think it captures very well what Turismo de Portugal set out to build with this initiative: not just looking at the immediate impact of an action, but understanding how to turn exposure into legacy."