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A small confectionery in Porto Alegre, the capital of Brazil's southern Rio Grande do Sul state, says an all-you-can-eat brigadeiro service has transformed its business, lifting monthly revenue to R$ 108,000 (roughly USD 20,000 at recent rates) and sharply increasing production.
The business, Brigadeiros da Li, began as a side job for owner Leandra Winck while she was studying mining engineering, according to single-source reporting from G1. She said she sold brigadeiros, a traditional Brazilian chocolate fudge sweet often served at birthday parties and family gatherings, around the city before leaving university to pursue confectionery full time.
From Street Sales to Storefront
G1 reported that Winck saved R$ 20,000 to open her first shop on her own. The opening drew more customers than expected, and her mother, Lili Schaefer, who had planned to help for only a week, became a permanent employee as demand grew.
Schaefer now handles doughs, brigadeiros, savory snacks and cakes, according to the report. She also sought basic bakery training in a local bakery as production expanded. What had once meant making about 100 savory items became a routine of producing 1,000 to 2,000, the outlet said.
Even as orders and app-based sales increased, the physical shop was still seeing weak foot traffic. That changed after Winck introduced a rodízio, a Brazilian all-you-can-eat service model more commonly associated with steakhouses and pizza restaurants, centered first on brigadeiros.
Viral Growth and Operational Strain
The format was later widened to include savory foods such as fries, hot dogs and pizza. G1 said the adult price is R$ 54.90 and that the operation requires around 20 staff on weekends, with preparation beginning on Thursdays.
A video recorded by influencer friends who were already customers went viral within two days, the report said. That brought a surge of attention and customers, but also exposed weaknesses in service during the first heavy-traffic weekend.
Winck told G1 she acknowledged the mistakes and contacted customers after complaints. The lesson, in her account, was that winning a customer can be hard, while losing one may take very little.
Reinvestment Over Immediate Profit
The sudden jump in demand forced new spending. According to G1, all of the new revenue has been reinvested into the business rather than taken out as profit. The money has gone toward electrical upgrades, new fryers, expansion work and a full building renovation.
The shop now produces up to 10,000 brigadeiros a day, the report said, and some events reserve as many as 50 seats just for the all-you-can-eat service. For now, the rodízio operates only on Saturdays, a choice aimed at keeping the experience exclusive and operationally manageable, though Winck is considering adding Fridays.
The story reflects a familiar pattern in Brazil's small-business sector: a simple, locally tailored format can scale quickly once it breaks through on social media, but the real test comes in execution. In this case, the unusual mix of unlimited sweets and savory snacks appears to have turned a neighborhood confectionery into a destination business.
For Winck, the wager was straightforward. As quoted by G1, if an entrepreneur does not try, there is no way to know whether it would have worked.
accessed on 21 April 2026