Barrio Fiesta The mission of Barrio Fiesta Restaurant is to create a truly unique and memorable dining experience for all the costumers, making sure that each visit to the restaurant brings great food, exceptional service service and an ambiance that exudes Philippine customs and traditions. It is also its mission to share the culinary delight of Filipino food with the rest of the world. The Barrio Fiesta’s vision is to maintain the culture of the Philippines alive, that should not be buried by the modern world. With a history dating back to 1952, Barrio Fiesta continues to provide its customers with authentic tastes of true Filipino cuisine. Like the Filipino tradition it has been named after, barrio fiesta this restaurant is a place for festivities, celebrations and gathering of families and friends. It has been well known for serving a wide range of traditional Filipino foods prepared in the traditional way of Filipino cooking. Barrio Fiesta enhances the bonding among families and friends by serving food in a typical Filipino fashion. Everything was placed in the middle of the table to be shared by everyone, the way it is done in homes, instead of being served portioned out on individual plates. The restaurant hire high caliber staff that helps provide the level of service that the customers expect. Keeping the dishes tastes authentic authentic and true to the flavors that loyal clients had gotten used to , is due to the fact that cooks learn the restaurant’s dishes by appretiship rather than expensive training in high-end high-end culinary schools. The current kitchen crew was trained by the founder’s, Mama Chit, original staff. It is in turn training the next generation of Barrio Fiesta’s cooks by example and hands -on-works. With Kare-kare being the flagship dish in this restaurant, the family owner insures its quality by making all the peanut butter and bagoong it requires. This is the major reason why Barrio Fiesta Karekare is quite different from most other restaurants. In keeping with its commitment to home-style cooking, Barrio Fiesta products being sold in supermarkets and its branches have no preservatives, like the bagoong ang peanut butter. Sixta Evangelista Ongpauco, the founder of Barrio Fiesta Restaurant, decided to turn her home on what was the Highway 54, now EDSA, in Caloocan City, into the first Filipino fine dining restaurant, with a menu made up almost all of native dishes
. In 1958, good Filipino food meant home cooking.
People stayed home when they wanted authentic native dishes. Eating out usually involved going to Chinese, Spanish or other western-style restaurants. Mama Chit, as she was called, was not only a food lover , but also had a sharp and sound business sense. Calling her restaurant Barrio Fiesta was a stroke of genius. A fiesta is always associated with the best in Filipino cooking. People don ot serve their daily fares during fiestas, but offer their most special recipes, prepared with the freshest and choicest of ingredients. The promise of having a special fiesta food was tempting to the people. Soon Barrio Fiesta became the venue of choice for events and occasions people hope to remember for a long time, like weddings, graduations, christenings christenings and birthdays. Making Kare-kare the center piece of the menu was another inspired decision. Many Filipinos loved the dish but its preparation was tedious. Having somebody to do it and excellently too, meant
they could enjoy the dish as often as they wanted without the hassle.The steaming palayokof Kare-kare became the restaurant’s logo. Later, people would also be enticed by the Crispy Pata. It was in the 1980’swhen they invented Crispy Pata. Mama Chit’s special way of preparing pork knuckles or pata, together with her son, Rodolfo’s innovation of frying until perfectly crisp was how the Crispy Pat a was invented. With the help of her eight children, Mama Chit expanded Barrio Fiesta to numerous branches nationwide and in other countries. Barrio Fiesta over the years has grown to become the leading traditional family restaurant in the Philippines and currently has 50 in the Philippines, USA and Dubai. The family company branched out to run Good Mixes by Barrio Fiesta that serves the chain’s best known items and the Fiesta International Catering Services, a full-service catering company that offers Filipino and international cuisine and elegant dining setups. Barrio Fiesta Manufacturing was established in 1987 to bring to the table of Filipino families high quality food and to share the experiences they gained in Barrio Fiesta Restaurants since 1958. It produces and sells meal essentials and condiments used in every meals of Filipinos, domestically and also exported, consumed by overseas Filipinos. It has a factory in Malabon. The products are sautéed shrimp paste, ready-to-eat canned meals, white vinegar, fish sauce, soy sauce, lechon sauce, fruit preserves and other condiments. Even the ambiance of the branches was updated, adapting to the current design for modern restaurants. They are well-lighted and well-designed, yet the art works displayed on the walls gives the distinction of Barrio Fiesta with authentic Filipino tradition. The third generation family members of the Barrio Fiesta brought out another innovation in introducing IBAYO by Barrio Fiesta, a bistro style food place that is true to tru e Barrio Fiesta’s classic taste done with a modern twist. While loyal to its Barrio Fiesta’s roots, Ibayo offers new and exciting line of signature food and cocktail redefining the classic Filipino dining experience with a modern bistro twist. They also opened for franchising offering interested parties to operate Barrio Feista business in their areas . Sometime in the last couple of decades, and at the time when Filipino’s eating habit had changed to make going to a restaurant serving local dishes as much as a treat as going to a continental, Japanese , or high – end Chinese restaurants, Barrio Fiesta seemed to loose steam. While many Filipino restaurants opened and aggressively marketed themselves, the Barrio Fiesta chain seemed to become no more than just a memory of good times past for many people. The daughter of Mama Chit , Corazon Ongpauco Tamayo admitted they became complacent , secure in the reputation of the chain had built through the years .But as new foreign and local restaurants and fast foods came to surge ahead, the family finally realized it could not be business as usual any more. While retaining the traditional best-sellers like Kare-kare and Crispy Pata in the menu, they also adapted to the new eating preferences and habits of the customers. They had reinvented the
classics such as the sea food version of the popular Kare-kare , which is now available for people who want to avoid meat. As dining out is no longer a strictly group event and many people dine alone or in very small group, the food servings now come in small, medium and large sizes to allow everyone to savor the popular food item in the menu, even Crispy Pata. Economic crisis is a fact not only here, but globally. This has a huge effect on the customers in choosing what restaurants to patronize, without sacrificing the taste , quality and quantity of food. Barrio Fiesta came up with food servings with affordable prices such as the combo meals which price is lower than 200 pesos. Many Filipinos still choose Barrio Fiesta as their venue for celebrating special events and occasions. Balikbayans also make it a point to dine in Barrio Fiesta as soon as they arrive back in the Philippines. It shows that many Filipinos still prefers and crave for traditional Filipino dishes that suite their palates Truly, Filipinos are a traditional race, choosing a traditional venue that serves a traditional Filipino food with traditional Filipino ambiance to celebrate important events and occasions of their lives with their family and friends. Barrio Fiesta is an ideal place to enjoy, relax, and eat good food and share exceptional memories with each other, mainly due to its traditional Filipino food and setting which is very familiar and comfortable to Filipinos. The Barrio Fiesta’s vision to maintain the culture of the Philippines alive , That should not be buried by the modern world is quite inspiring. We can see that now a days, a lot of foreign restaurants and fast food dominate the local market such as Japanese, Chinese, Korean and American restaurants among others .It very commendable that we introduce first to the younger generation the very best of our traditional Filipino cuisine. It will play a significant role in k eeping alive one aspect of the sense being a Filipino, proud of his culture, tradition and heritage. It will also inspire patriotism and nationalism by patronizing Filipino products. The fact that it is a family business through the years , it is also a good role model for the Filipino youth of having strong family ties , that by working hand in hand, the Filipino family can achieve great success in any endeavor they may pursue, making it a legacy to the succeeding generations family members, and helping others to have jobs along the way.
