I knew her for many years—it is a genuinely sad story. I visited this woman’s restaurant regularly over a long period, starting back when they were located in smaller rooms at Åboulevarden, and later years when they moved to Vanløse at the restaurant called O Tempo (Jyllingevej 10, 2720 Vanløse).
+45 35 35 74 65
Even when I was broke, I worked hard to pay for my meals. A few times, she gave me credit, and I always returned the money promptly, as far as I remember the same night some hours later. I felt I could trust her because she was Brazilian.
While I don't know the full story, I occasionally met her daughter, Sarah Berlowicz. The first time I met Sarah was at her birthday party hosted at the restaurant (sometimes I been thinking if it really was her birthday that evening, or the small group of brazilians woman just pretended to lure me in, and I will never know for sure). They welcomed me in to join the table; she was really nice back then—an attractive woman of mixed background (Brazilian, Polish, and Italian, I years later found out), though I primarily saw her as Brazilian. However, after that small dinner, Sarah bullied me regarding my past relationships with two women (the mothers to my children, who I told the stories about earnestly and briefly). It was a deeply disrespectful interaction. I was simply a hard-working man going there to get a decent meal at night and then I was suddenly first at a polite birthday dinner and after in an agressive bullying situation. I was kind-of chocked at the primitive behaviour, but I didnt do anything agressive to them at all. I was struggling mentally at the time and that was clear to everyone and thats not a reason or an excuse.
Long story short: I ran into Jacira completely by chance on the streets of Copenhagen yesterday. I told her I didnt have any money for food for the next 21 days, though I was very excited about the creation of LasseCash, that I believed it became the best in the world, but I was worried about my own survival physically. It was a pretty direct request for help from a woman with likely millions of DKK in the bank in her marriage, or at least the ability to lend me a small amount like 1,001 or even 300 DKK so I could afford basic food for the 21 days, she has many years proof that I would return the money as soon as I could, so no big deal in fact.
We talked on the street for about 15 minutes, mostly in Brazilian Portuguese. She told me she had finally decided to sell the restaurant and move to Italy with her husband—whom I met once; he is an engineer, though she mentioned he "wasn't interested in LasseCash." She had told me for all the years that he was purely Polish, but that day on the street, she claimed he was half-Italian and half-Polish, which was why they were moving to Italy. I asked if Sarah would stay in CPH and yes said yes. I realized then that she had lied to me about basic, normal things for all the years I knew her (since around 2010 or 2011). While it's probably true that they are moving, it could just as easily be another lie; I honestly don't know.
Later, I sent her a final email asking for a small loan of 1,001 DKK via MobilePay, promising to pay it back later. I also found her daughter's old business card and tried calling Sarah multiple times this morning to ask for a small loan. The number was most certainly working even it was a very old business card but she decided to never answer the call, even I presented myself in text message and that I knew her monther for many years and needed her help. The messsage was never really read, but the call went through maybe 10 times. She dont recognized my number, but she never did any effort to talk with me or text me in a normal way. Jacira also mentioned that Sarah is getting married to a Brazilian man, who has a small child and they will stay in Copenhagen. But at this point I dont trust her word anymore after all these years.
For years, I looked at them as my only real physical connection to Brazil on the ground in Copenhagen, given how loyal a client I was of their restaurants over all those years. I shared details about my life and LasseCash with Jacira all those years, yet she essentially treated me with disrespect, aggression, and lies—making me feel like nothing simply because I often lacked fiat cash. Even when I was broke, I frequently left large cash tips of 50 to 100 DKK or even more (far more than the average Dane, who rarely tips at all), yet I was met with silence—no "thank you," no "obrigado."
Because I was a lone man with almost no friends or partner by my side, I was largely ignored and discarded as trash. She delivered the food and it was good, but the disrespect got worse and worse over the years. She even served my son once without ever coming over to introduce herself, despite talking about him for all the yes. Sarah, I believe, has never even seen my son.
It makes you wonder where the fault lies. When she stood there on the street in my hometown and couldn't even offer a small loan of 300 DKK so a legal man could buy basic food for the next three weeks, I realized something. I had treated this woman, her husband, and her daughter with respect and dignity for years—even when they treated me like garbage. They will never truly understand the genuine, high-value information I handed them for free all that time.
I did learn some Portuguese from Jacira, though it came at a high emotional cost. Ironically, when I speak it to my son, he says he doesn't understand the accent because Jacira is from Bahia, whereas my son relates to the Portuguese spoken further north around Belém. So, her "free language course" turned out to be somewhat useless for my family—other than the fact that I likely speak more Brazilian Portuguese than almost ever any native danes ever will.
When that interaction on the street happened, I officially lost my Brazilian amiga, Jacira Mariete. No decent person with access to wealth speaks to a struggling friend like that on the street without offering a quick MobilePay transfer or a few hundred crowns in cash. It goes against basic human decency, let alone Latin culture. She didn't even seem to care that I had survived dangerous living conditions over many years. Ultimately, she likely saw me as nothing more than a guy who brought cash into her restaurant while she treated me poorly.
All I can say is goodbye, Jacira—assuming the restaurant really does sell, or assuming I survive this hard period and manage to scrape together enough money on my card one day to buy food there again. If I do return, I will treat you with respect once more, trusting I won't get food poisoning. Years ago, her husband served me a piece of fish that tasted genuinely VERY rotten; I made zero drama about it, ignored the fish, ate the rest, paid, and thanked them in Portuguese. Why they would serve rotten fish to a loyal customer who caused no trouble is a mystery—perhaps because I was broke, or because I wasn't interested in their daughter. Only God knows.
If I never see you again, Jacira—which is likely, given the sale of the restaurant and my own precarious survival—I say thank you for the food, the aggression, and the lies. They ultimately made me stronger. I'm just not sure what you will use it for now, that your names are permanently written into history on the blockchain.
Years ago, back in the "Åboulevard days" I even drove her Brazilian clients to the central station for free in a taxi, though I doubt she ever realized it.
Lasse Ehlers