A more elegant barrio

A famous restaurant veers away from tradition

By MAAN D’ASIS PAMARAN

A more minimalist and Zen-like look greets diners at the newly-refurbished Barrio Fiesta restaurant along EDSA at Greenhills in Mandaluyong. (Photo by NOEL B. PABALATE)

For Generation X, the name Barrio Fiesta is synonymous with delicious crispy pata and kare kare. The EDSA  Greenhills restaurant was overflowing not only with good food, but also of images that Filipino restaurants were usually garbed with -- kawayan and rattan everythings and anythings. There are still many Filipino-themed restaurants that are dressed this way, even complete with tacky colored banderitas, where one would expect someone to go up a palo sebo or spur a carabao  to race through the aisles at any given moment.

It was then a refreshing surprise to see that Barrio Fiesta Greenhills has transformed to have a more modern appeal. There is no in-your-face Pinoy artifice, it looks more like a cozy international cafe. Diners in this well-lit eatery can opt to sit on couches, or on seats with high cushions. The Filipino references are understated and artful. For instance, there is a mixed media wall relief of dancing clay figures clad in Barong and Baro’t Saya attached to glass panes that are adorned with shiny pebbles, with butterfly stickers and fabric ribbons in the background. There is also a charcoal rendition of a smiling Mama Chit in Filipiniana -- she is the family matriarch who developed the recipes that Barrio Fiesta uses today. 

The space is smaller than the original restaurant, but one is not aware of the fact once inside, and not just because the diner is distracted by the mouthwatering food, but also because the designer, Arch. Rene Bartolome, made studies of New York restaurants with the same situation and made good use of the space, along with fixing up the facade to make the basement restaurant appear at street level
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