Somerset's Piri Piri Kitchen is set to close this weekend after six years at 970 County St. Owner Sandy Batista will serve the restaurant's final bifanas, the Portuguese pork sandwiches that became a signature item, before the storefront shuts permanently.
Batista opened Piri Piri Kitchen in fall 2020 in the space formerly occupied by Fork and Spoon, according to the Fall River Reporter. The business began about a decade earlier as a Portuguese recipe blog, the Fall River Herald News reports. Batista developed a regional audience through the blog during the pandemic before opening the Somerset location, and the Fall River Reporter notes that she had previously operated a Rhode Island restaurant.
From a Small Menu to Buckets of House Sauce
The menu expanded as demand grew from a small Portuguese-focused offering to homestyle dishes including bacalhau, carne de porco alentejana, Portuguese steak, chicken and shrimp Mozambique, and francesinha, the Herald News reports. The restaurant also added catering and party platters, along with items such as stuffies and lobster rolls.
The restaurant's popularity pushed it well beyond simple takeout. Customers wanted Piri Piri Kitchen's signature Portuguese house sauce in bulk, so the shop began selling it by the pint, quart, and bucket, the same account notes. Customer requests also led the kitchen to add regional Lusophone dishes such as Cape Verdean Cachupa to the menu.
Other South Coast restaurant changes
Piri Piri Kitchen's closure is not the only recent change involving a South Coast restaurant. According to The Herald News, Acores Family Restaurant ended operations at its 1365 Rodman St. location in Fall River on Dec. 28, 2024, as it prepared to move to a larger site at 317 Ocean Grove Ave. in Swansea. That case differs from Piri Piri Kitchen because the documented change involved a relocation and planned expansion rather than a permanent closure. In a separate Fall River example, Fun 107 reported that the Liberal Club Restaurant planned to close its kitchen on June 30 after more than five decades, while the club itself would remain open and seek a new operator for the space. Unlike Piri Piri Kitchen, that announcement concerned the restaurant operation within an ongoing club.
Owner Asks Fans to Skip the Sad Posts
In a public farewell announcement, Batista asked customers to skip sad goodbye posts and instead use that energy to tag and support other small businesses and cafes in Somerset, according to South Coast Spotlight. The Herald News reports that Batista said her time in the end cap of the old Simon building had come to an end, described small businesses as the heart of Somerset, and thanked customers who supported Piri Piri Kitchen over its six years.
A Singer's Roots in Somerset's Portuguese Community
Batista's ties to the region's Portuguese culture run beyond the kitchen. Her parents are from mainland Portugal, and she is a recognized fadista, the Herald News reports, singing fado with the New Bedford-based group Bandfaith. She sang the national anthem during Portuguese Heritage Night at Fenway Park this past June, and in April 2024 she starred in a featured fado concert at The Arctic Playhouse in West Warwick, Rhode Island, according to a Constant Contact announcement. That same announcement notes she is the daughter of Martinho Batista, a prominent local Portuguese musician and recording artist in Southern New England's Portuguese-American community.
A Cultural Corridor Built on Immigration History
Piri Piri Kitchen's closure lands in a corner of Massachusetts with a Portuguese community. U.S. Census Bureau data shows Bristol County is one of only two counties in the country where people of Portuguese descent make up an overall ethnic plurality.
Neighboring Fall River takes that concentration even further, with between 37% and 46% of its population claiming Portuguese heritage, representing the highest municipal concentration of Portuguese-Americans in the nation, per Edible Southeastern Massachusetts. That density traces back to major immigration waves from the Azores and Madeira in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when Portuguese laborers arrived to work the region's whaling fleets, commercial fishing operations, and textile mills, according to the New Bedford Whaling Museum. It's the kind of history that turns a corner takeout spot like Piri Piri Kitchen into more than just a place to grab lunch.
No single cause, such as a lease dispute, rent increase, or personal retirement, has been given for the closure. For now, Somerset diners have one last weekend to grab a bifana, a plate of lulas recheadas, or a stuffed squid dish, before the County Street storefront closes for good.
