RIO DE JANEIRO – Leafing through the leather-bound menu at a classic Rio de Janeiro restaurant, the tile-floored, wood-paneled Armazem Sao Thiago, 28-year-old Paula Cardoso says something that amounts to heresy in this establishment: “I prefer QR code menus.”
Founded in 1919 and owned by the same family for three generations, Armazem Sao Thiago is a place that frowns on QR codes, those newfangled hieroglyphs that surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, letting contact-wary diners access digital menus on their cell phones.
The bar and restaurant takes pride in its menu, which…