Goodbye for now, see you again soon
For everyone who has become part of Café Ysabel or has made the restaurant a part of their lives in one way or another, one cannot help but feel nostalgic over its closure — although temporarily.
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For everyone who has become part of Café Ysabel or has made the restaurant a part of their lives in one way or another, one cannot help but feel nostalgic over its closure — although temporarily.
CAFE Ysabel, idyllic for intimate celebrations.
ONE of the restaurant’s greatest strengths is its desserts.
CAFE Ysabel’s famous steak.
A homey, classic ambiance.
Café Ysabel is one of the oldest and most iconic restaurants in the metro — and yet its chef owner, Chef Gene Gonzalez, isn’t as old as you would probably surmise him to be. He was, after all, only 23 when he boldly chased after his dream and founded Café Ysabel in 1982.
Initially an intimate dining place along Wilson Street in Greenhills, San Juan, the restaurant offered classic European cuisine and yet it also elevated Spanish-Filipino food to fine dining level. The creativity and innovativeness of the young chef made the restaurant famous — and even more so because the food and the impeccable service came with a distinct ambiance.
Café Ysabel, which later transferred to an ancestral house along P. Guevarra Street and then to its most recent home at M. Paterno Street, both in San Juan, maintained its lovely, romantic 1920s setting all these years, and thus became the most idyllic venue for romantic dinners, wedding proposals and intimate celebrations.
And Chef Gene? He went on to become one of the country’s top chefs, Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) award recipient, member and officer of international wine and food societies, and multi-awarded cookbook author. He also founded the Center for Asian Culinary Studies (CACS), one of the most respected culinary schools in the country today and one that produced countless celebrity chefs who went on to become top culinary names as well. His children, chefs Gino and Giannina Gonzalez, have joined him in the school while at the same time pursuing their own successful business ventures. Chef Gene now also does consultancy work for restaurant groups and resorts all over the country, but his focus on Café Ysabel never really came to a still.
Café Ysabel, along with CACS, has always been special to him. And while it has adjusted to also accommodate the younger dining-out crowd, which includes CACS students and their friends and families who hang around the place after classes, Café Ysabel has maintained its special vibe and heritage cuisine, and service is never a question.
But then, quietly, Chef Gene has decided to close Café Ysabel, albeit temporarily, to give it breathing space and the opportunity to revert back to its original lounge and café personality —something a more mature and highly accomplished chef has been longing to do for a while now.
Expected to reopen in its new home around the P. Guevarra area in November this year, Café Ysabel will still serve its signature dishes, such as Steak ala Pobre, Spaghetti with Angry Sauce, Olive Oil Puttanesca, as well as its iconic Strawberry Shortcake, Tocino del Cielo and Ensaymada when it finally reopens before the Christmas rush begins.
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“It will have a good, limited menu that includes all Café Ysabel classics, and, hopefully, my own kitchen for special dining arrangements. We will not do big banquets anymore, but we will still come up with custom-made lunches and dinners and tasting menus for wine clubs and small groups,” says Chef Gene.
For everyone who has become part of Café Ysabel or has made the restaurant a part of their lives in one way or another, one cannot help but feel nostalgic over its closure — although temporarily.
But Chef Gene promises that Café Ysabel will make a good comeback in its given time. The last day of Café Ysabel at its present site at M. Paterno is today, Thursday, 23 July. Let’s make it count. Let’s bid it adieu for now with a proud tribute and say “see you again soon.”
