The same quality and the same care, just smaller and faster.
Kawa launches a fast-casual format in Gilberto Salomão offering quality Japanese cuisine with faster service for busy customers seeking healthy dining options. The new location will feature signature dishes like Tonegawa in smaller portions while maintaining the same quality standards and fresh ingredient sourcing as the original Asa Sul restaurant.
- Kawa opens fast-casual location in Gilberto Salomão, Lago Sul
- Signature Tonegawa dish served in 5 pieces instead of traditional 10
- Original restaurant opened in 2018; expansion planned to 5 additional neighborhoods
- Vegetables purchased daily at 5 a.m.; fish and seafood prepared fresh to order
Kawa, a established Japanese restaurant in Brasília, opens a smaller fast-casual concept location in Lago Sul with plans to expand to five additional neighborhoods across the Federal District.
José Afrânio Rios has spent three years building Kawa into something people in Brasília's South Wing actually care about—a Japanese restaurant that treats ingredients like they matter, because they do. Now he's betting that the same precision and care can work at a smaller scale, faster pace, in a place where people are rushing.
The new Kawa opens in Gilberto Salomão, in the Lago Sul commercial district, as a fast-casual operation. It's a deliberate step down in size and ceremony from the original Asa Sul location, designed for the neighborhood's rhythm: people who want excellent food but don't have two hours to spend on it. "We want to launch a smaller project," Afrânio explains. "A place where people can pass through quickly and eat something really good, something with quality." The menu will be shorter, the portions more modest, but the sourcing and technique unchanged.
One dish will carry over from the flagship: Tonegawa, a signature preparation of salmon loin sashimi mounted on Kawa's house sauce and finished with crispy sweet potato. At the new location, it will arrive as five pieces instead of the traditional ten—a deliberate compression that lets someone eat well in the time they actually have. "We want to offer something so that people who don't have time can still eat something healthy and have a drink," Afrânio says. "It will be a smaller place, with fewer dishes, but the same quality and the same care."
The mystery around the full menu is intentional. Afrânio wants to surprise customers, but the philosophy is already clear: this isn't a compromise version of Kawa. It's a different shape of the same commitment. The vegetables arrive every morning at five. Fish and seafood come fresh and stay unopened until the moment of preparation. Nothing sits in mise en place waiting. This is how Kawa has operated since opening in 2018, and it's how the Lago Sul location will operate too.
The restaurant's name itself carries intention. Kawa is a tribute to the Togawa family—togawa means river in Japanese—and Afrânio built the original concept around that image: the freshness and flow of moving water reflected in both kitchen and dining room. Service is trained and deliberate. Ingredients are treated as the primary material, not the supporting cast. "In Japan there is a composition, a harmonization of seasonings, sauces, spices," Afrânio reflects. "Combinations that give you exceptional pleasure. What we deliver here is similar, and that's why we've grown and formed opinions."
This opening is the first move in a larger expansion. Afrânio plans five additional locations across the Federal District: Asa Norte, Noroeste, Lago Norte, and Sudoeste. He speaks about the possibility of moving beyond Brasília entirely with the confidence of someone who has watched a concept prove itself. "We want to invest heavily in Kawa's expansion," he says. "We'll start by opening in Gilberto and then five more units. Kawa has established itself as a quality product, so the probability of expanding to other cities is high." The fast-casual format, he believes, is the vehicle for that growth—the shape that lets the thing that made Kawa work travel beyond the original neighborhood.
Citas Notables
We want to offer something so that people who don't have time can still eat something healthy and have a drink.— José Afrânio Rios, Kawa owner
In Japan there is a composition, a harmonization of seasonings, sauces, spices. Combinations that give you exceptional pleasure. What we deliver here is similar.— José Afrânio Rios
La Conversación del Hearth Otra perspectiva de la historia
Why open a smaller, faster version now? Why not just replicate the original?
Because the original works for people with time and appetite for ceremony. But most people don't have that. You can't grow a restaurant by serving only the people who can sit for two hours.
But doesn't speed compromise quality? Isn't that the whole trap of fast food?
Only if you treat speed as an excuse to cut corners. Afrânio isn't doing that. The vegetables still arrive at five in the morning. The fish still stays unopened until service. He's just serving five pieces of Tonegawa instead of ten.
So it's the same standards, just smaller portions?
Exactly. And smaller portions actually make sense for someone eating alone at lunch, grabbing something between meetings. The original restaurant serves four people sharing. This one serves the person who's alone.
Why Lago Sul first? Why not expand to Asa Norte or Noroeste right away?
Gilberto Salomão is a commercial center. The foot traffic is there. The rhythm of the neighborhood matches what he's trying to do. It's a proof of concept before he commits to five more locations.
Does he worry about diluting the brand by opening so many places?
He's thought about it differently. He sees Kawa as a product that's proven itself—the quality is real, the sourcing is real. Now the question is how many neighborhoods in Brasília want that product. The answer, he thinks, is most of them.
What happens if one of the new locations fails?
Then he learns something about that neighborhood or that format. But he's not opening these out of desperation. He's opening them because the original worked.