The Context

SUBA sits inside the Verride Palácio Santa Catarina in Lisbon, at the top of the hill the yellow tram climbs. Chef Fábio Alves cooks his own interpretations of Portuguese cuisine, with influences from further afield. The menu runs as a sequence rather than a list of dishes, and the team tells you where each one comes from.

The Approach

The tram was the way in. Everyone knows the image — the yellow carriage grinding up the hill — but it usually stands for the view at the top. Here it ends at a palace, and inside the palace there's a restaurant most people walk past the entrance of without knowing.

So the reel is built as an arrival rather than a review. It starts with something entirely familiar, follows it up the hill, and opens a door. The point is the gap between the postcard and what's actually behind it.

From there it's the meal itself: the courses in order, the hands that plate them, and the stories that come with each one. Less "here is a restaurant in Lisbon" than "there is a secret up this hill, and it comes with dinner."

*Media collaboration, March 2025 · Concept, filming, editing