It has been just over one year since Janine Barican opened her business, and then had to switch to takeaway for COVID.
Thankfully, the siren song of home has rung out to the local Filipino community, helped in part by Fides Santos-Arguelles and Grace Guinto who run the Entree Pinays, a website and social media channel that amplifies Filipino-run businesses (and has just launched a mercato for goods). Now, last-minute tables are hard to book, but a dozen stools lining the sleek central bar and some shorter squats around the kitchen are always there for walk-ins.
It s encouraging to see any restaurant packed out at 5.30pm on a weeknight right now. It s better still to be the only lonely island of two in a sea of big family groups, each spanning (at a glance) three generations.