Heritage restaurant selfie
Getting ready to order a cool beverage during the “Likha Isip Daloy” (Create Think Flow) a music, arts and tattooing event at the Adarna Food and Culture restaurant along Kalayaan Avenue in Quezón City. As history buffs, my family would regularly visit the Adarna restaurant, as it in a sense reminded us of our own home.
Before partners Elizabeth Angsioco and Chef Giney Villar established Adarna Restaurant in 2007, the edifice was once the home of a certain Del Rosario family. Built in 1967, the house was strategically located close to many of the important government, educational and religious institutions of Quezón City. The patriarch was a lawyer; hence the short distance to the Quezón City Hall was a great convenience for him.
The lot had a very large yard where the matriarch tended to her Indian mango (Mangifera indica), guava (Psidium guajava), niyog (Cocos nucifera), avocado (Persea americana), kamias (Averrhoa bilimbi), santol (Sandoricum koetjape) trees.
When the parents retired and the children migrated for greener pastures abroad, the house was sold to a corporation; which in turn rented the place to Angsioco and Villar. As avid history buffs, the duo pooled together their collections of Philippine colonial and pop culture artifacts, and created a nostalgic ambiance that served interesting twists to classic Filipino dishes.
The two named the restaurant after the mythical “Ibong Adarna” that was first published in the early 19th century in the epic poem “Korrido at Buhay na Pinagdaanan ng Tatlong Prinsipeng Magkakapatid na anak ni Haring Fernando at ni Reyna Valeriana sa Kahariang Berbanya” ("Corrido and Life Lived by the Three Princes, children of King Fernando and Queen Valeriana in the Kingdom of Berbania") by an unknown writer.
Sadly the Adarna Food and Culture restaurant closed down in 2015, while Angsioco and Villar moved their operations to the Feliza Taverna y Café in the historic town of Taal.
This photo was taken circa 2011 by the artist Jean Paul Zialcita.