Emidio's Restaurant Reflects Couple's Love for Food and Portuguese Culture

If the cuisine is one reason that you frequent Emidio’s restaurant, Maria Sapeta is likely another.

She will tell you in an instant that she loves the Sandy Springs eatery she owns with husband, Chef Emidio. Located in the old Loehmann’s shopping center on Roswell Road, Emidio’s serves Portuguese, Spanish and Italian dishes.

“I’m in love with the restaurant,” Sapeta said. “If you see me on weekends, I walk around talking to everybody, making everybody laugh. By the end of the night people are turning around to the next table talking to each other. I like people to be together.”

Maria and Emidio, who was away from the restaurant when Patch visited, are natives of Madeira, Portugal. “It belongs to Portugal but it’s off the coast of Africa. The food is influenced from there,” Maria said.

The couple’s desire is to share both their food and culture to patrons. Maria holds a special Portuguese lunch one Sunday per month. “What I do when people come [who are not ] Portuguese is ask if they would like to come back and mingle with Portuguese people - Do you want to know us, where we come from, how happy we are,” Maria said. She contacts folks about the lunch through email.

A different region of Portugal is featured for the meal and everyone eats at one big table, like a family. 

The Menu

Emidio’s regular menu featuring Portuguese, Spanish and Italian meals was inspired by a 1997 visit to a restaurant in Quebec. The Canadian restaurant was very successful because of its appeal to groups of people who each wanted something different to eat, Maria said.

The Sapeta’s carried that concept to a New Jersey restaurant they owned for several years called Mona Lisa.

Emidio's menu items include Arroz de Marisco, which is a seafood rice stew. Also Carne a Alentejana that has cubes of lean pork marinated with wine and garlic, and cubes of potatoes and clams. 

Marinated grilled chicken or beef espetada is popular, said Maria.

“And we have lots of seafood. We have Zuppi Dippicci. It’s like a seafood stew with capellini and marinara sauce,” she said. "We’re also introducing a vegetarian Paella Valenciana."

Family Influence

Emidio Sapeta comes from a family of accomplished chefs and started cooking himself at age 16. He worked his way up in the restaurant and hospitality industry, Maria said, including managing establishments in England.

The couple has been married 30 years. “When I got married I didn’t know how to cook. I learned to cook wonderful homemade food from my mother-in-law. And that’s how my husband asks me to cook for him. So at least five times a week I will have his mom’s food on the table,” said a teary-eyed Maria, adding that her mother-in-law died two years ago.

The oldest of the Sapeta’s three sons is a popular DJ in New York City. Twenty-seven-year-old Robbie Wilde was featured on CNN, in February, for his success in music despite his hearing loss. See the video here.

Emidio's, at 8610 Roswell Road, is open 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m., Monday-Friday; noon-10 p.m., Saturday; and noon-9 p.m., Sunday.