◆ To start, could you each introduce yourselves and tell us how MYRA came to life?

Maryam | I move between worlds, screens and rooms, interfaces and tables, designing ideas you can touch and moments you feel before you name them. I am a creative director, shaped by a mixed Lebanese background and a life without a single place ever fully mine. I learned early to live in between, between cultures, languages, rooms, and rhythms. When I arrived in Lisbon, something shifted. I no longer wanted to observe a place or design around it. I wanted to belong to it. I was drawn to what is quiet and enduring, to the lives of fishermen. In Caparica, I felt how often spaces try to impress, polishing away their truth, and how easily the soul of a place can disappear. I wanted to create something that stays close to the ground, an experience that doesn’t perform, but holds, attentive to the lives and communities already there. A space where you can arrive alone or together, without explanation or expectation, and feel received. Not asked who you are. Only invited to stay.

Ryan | I’m a seasoned chef and restaurant operator from New York. Over the past eight years, I’ve been visiting Lisbon regularly for DJ gigs and, along the way, fell in love with the city .. its food, culture, and people. Through those years, I naturally built a close network of friends and collaborators. As I watched the hospitality landscape evolve and truly explode over the last five to seven years, I knew the time had come to make the move. We first met early last year at an art exhibition, with Maryam performing live visuals. It quickly became clear that we shared the same vision for the future, rooted in everything MYRA stands for: affordable oysters and seasonal plates served in a relaxed, welcoming space; a strong sense of community; a balance between Portuguese tradition and a new wave of global hospitality; and a shared platform for music and the arts. What began as a dream of opening a beach shack soon grew into something bigger. It started on the sands of Caparica and naturally evolved into our flagship home in Lisbon.
 

◆ If you had to describe MYRA in three words?

Soulful. Seasonal. Intentional.
 

◆ Maryam, how did you imagine MYRA’s visual and cultural identity from the beginning?

I wanted MYRA to feel lived-in rather than designed—raw but refined. The identity draws from coastal culture, hand-made elements, and storytelling, with art and music acting as anchors rather than decoration.
 

◆ Ryan, how would you describe your culinary approach?

I would describe my culinary approach as free and ever-evolving. My philosophy is simple: recipes are shaped by flavour and instinct. They serve as a guide, but ultimately the palate and intuition should lead the way. My aim is for each dish to evoke a sense of nostalgia... reflecting memories from my childhood or moments and flavors discovered through my travels.