Churrascaria Downtown: Fogo de Chão on Figueroa Before a Show

Fogo de Chão's downtown Los Angeles branch occupies the ground floor at 800 S. Figueroa St., on the Financial District corner where Figueroa meets 8th Street. Gaucho chefs walk the dining room with long skewers of fire-roasted beef, lamb and chicken, carving slices straight onto your plate until you turn your table card to red. Office crowds fill it at lunch, while concertgoers and game-night crowds heading to LA Live arrive at dinner, and the restaurant shapes its hours, valet and happy hour around both groups.

This address had a dining history before the skewers arrived. According to REBusiness, Fogo signed a 15-year lease in 2014 for 7,414 square feet at 800 S. Figueroa, a space previously occupied by Roy's Hawaiian Fusion, and the company planned to open in time for the holiday season. The brand itself dates to 1979 in southern Brazil, and the downtown branch gave the Financial District its own rodízio, so office workers no longer had to drive west for a business lunch of picanha.

The restaurant describes itself as a spot for entertaining clients or a night out with friends, and it lists the nearby hotels and LA Live as its neighbors. That mix sets the mood: weekday lunch suits a working meal with colleagues, while an early dinner pairs well with an evening show a few blocks south.

Every seat gets a round card, green on one side and red on the other. Green tells the gauchos to stop at your table, and red tells them you need a break. Leave it on green from the first minute and your plate fills before you have tried the salads. Start on red, visit the Market Table, then flip to green once you are seated again with a clean plate.

Take one slice per pass and use the small tongs to catch it as the chef carves. If you want a specific doneness, say so when the skewer arrives, because the outer slices come well done and the center stays rosier. If a cut you want has not come by, ask your server to send it over, and that request is the single best trick for guests in a hurry before a show.

The dinner menu names bone-in ribeye, picanha, lamb chops, fraldinha, filet and roasted chicken among the cuts in the Full Churrasco. Picanha, the top sirloin cap roasted with its fat on, is the one Brazilians judge a churrascaria by, so save room for a second pass. Fraldinha, the bottom sirloin, is looser in grain and more beefy, while the lamb chops come seasoned simply and are best eaten while hot from the fire.

For a larger table, the menu offers indulgent cuts sized to share among four or more: a 36-ounce dry-aged tomahawk ribeye aged 42 days for $150, a 20-ounce Wagyu New York strip for $190 and a 24-ounce Wagyu ribeye for $200. Smaller add-ons sit beside them: a butter-bathed lobster tail or jumbo lump crab cake for $20 each, roasted bone marrow for $18 and black truffle butter for $10.

The Market Table is the salad and sides counter that comes with every churrasco. The menu describes seasonal salads, black pepper candied bacon, charcuterie, exotic fruit and feijoada, the black bean stew with sausage served over rice. The warm cheese bread rolls, pão de queijo, arrive at the table with other Brazilian sides, and they are refilled as often as you like.

Guests who do not eat meat can still eat well here. The Market Table and Feijoada Bar is sold on its own for $43 at dinner and as a $22 add-on at lunch, and the entrée list includes a cauliflower steak with parmesan crust and a seared tofu plate with spinach rice. Dinner also has a pan-seared salmon with chimichurri and a blistered branzino with crispy yuca bites.

Weekday lunch runs Monday to Friday from 11:30 am to 3 pm, with the Full Churrasco at $61 and the Indulgent Churrasco at $83. Dinner starts at 3 pm Monday through Friday and at 2 pm on weekends. It ends at 10 pm Monday to Thursday, 10:30 pm on Friday and Saturday, and 9 pm on Sunday. The dinner Full Churrasco is $81, and the Indulgent Churrasco, which adds a dessert and one enhancement, is $103.

Weekend brunch is served Saturday and Sunday from 11:30 am to 2 pm, with the Full Churrasco at $63 and the Indulgent version at $85. The brunch Market Table adds a made-to-order omelet station, Belgian waffles and braised beef rib hash. Children 6 and under eat the Full Churrasco free, and those aged 7 to 12 pay half price, which makes brunch the most family-friendly slot of the week.

The bar is the best value in the building. From Monday to Thursday, happy hour runs all day in both the bar and the dining room, with $6 beers, $8 South American wines and $10 cocktails, and South American bottles priced under $150 are half off. The classic caipirinha, made with silver cachaça, muddled lime and cane sugar, is on the list, and the mango habanero caipirinha costs $16.50 at full price.

For dessert, the papaya cream at $13.50 blends fresh papaya with vanilla ice cream and is finished with crème de cassis. The chocolate brigadeiro, a nod to the Brazilian party sweet, is $15.25, and the tres leches cake is $15. A carajillo with Licor 43 and espresso is a strong way to finish a long dinner.

Valet runs daily from 4 pm to 10 pm at a flat rate of $15, and the drop-off is in the alley off 8th Street rather than on Figueroa itself. At lunch the valet is closed, so office diners walk over or use a nearby garage. The 7th Street/Metro Center station sits across the street from FIGat7th, so the Metro is often faster than driving on event nights.

Reservations are taken online, and the restaurant sends parties larger than 14 to its group dining team, which handles private and semi-private rooms. On LA Live event nights, book for 5 pm or earlier if you have tickets, and tell the host your curtain time so the gauchos can pace the meal. Special dates fill early: the restaurant opens from 11 am to 8:30 pm on Thanksgiving, and it has scheduled a Wine and Wagyu tasting for Thursday, November 5.

FIGat7th, the open-air mall a block up the street at 735 S. Figueroa St., is the obvious first stop. It opened on April 9, 1986, as Seventh Market Place, and today its tenants include Target, Nordstrom Rack, Sephora and Zara, which makes it handy for a quick errand before a reservation. Walk a few blocks north on Flower Street and you reach the Central Library, where the Maguire Gardens make a quiet place to sit before dinner.

After a long meal, a slow walk south on Figueroa toward LA Live helps. The route passes the hotels the restaurant counts as neighbors and ends at the plaza where crowds gather before shows. If you are not heading to an event, Bar Fogo stays open through dinner service, so a final caipirinha at the bar is a calmer close to the night.

Address: 800 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles, CA 90017, in the Financial District. Full Churrasco is $61 at lunch, $81 at dinner and $63 at weekend brunch, and children 6 and under eat free. Valet is $15 from 4 pm to 10 pm, entering from the alley off 8th Street. Happy hour runs all day Monday to Thursday. Groups larger than 14 book through group dining. Ask the Karpo APP for a pre-show plan that pairs this table with LA Live tickets or a FIGat7th errand.