A place where you’re bound to bump into friends
Friday, Oct. 4, was a classic case of serendipity. That day, I was invited to cut the ribbon for the “One Town, One Product (OTOP) Food Fair” of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) at Glorietta Center. While I was going around the activity center with my daughter Gabbie, I bumped into long-time friend Keren Pascual as he sampled the various foods.
When we got tired from walking, we decided to try the newly opened Thai restaurant Cha Tra Mue on the second floor. While we enjoyed refreshing glasses of Thai milk tea, Leah Puyat (sister-in-law of my cousin Nina Daza-Puyat) joined us. She was supposed to meet Keren earlier but was delayed because of the Friday traffic.
Leah then ordered kropek and I also ordered the mango with sticky rice to go with our drinks. After about an hour, Leah spotted former ramp model Suyen Chi, who to this day has maintained her looks and slim physique. Soon all five of us were gossiping and laughing.
I didn’t want the chat to end but I promised Gabbie that I’d take her to the newly reopened Sugi, our favorite Japanese restaurant, at Garden Towers right across Glorietta. I invited Keren, Leah, and Suyen to join us for dinner and they happily agreed.
When we got to Sugi at exactly 6 p.m., there were already diners inside. I made the mistake of not making a reservation but luckily Ria Lim, the floor manager and my ex-cousin-in-law (the Lim family owns Sugi, and Manuel Lim, Ria’s cousin, is my first ex-husband) was able to accommodate us.
The first diner we spotted was Rowena Tomeldan of Ayala Malls who was having dinner with colleagues. And then, seated next to our table, was Jim Fuentebella of Max’s Group of Restaurants with his siblings.
A few tables away from us was Cecille “Chuvanes” Zamora who dropped by our table to say hello. While we were enjoying our appetizers (haikara maki, spicy tuna sashimi, salmon sashimi, kari-kari bones, edamame, kaiware kani salad), I got a call from Florabel Co-Yatco who heard we were at the DTI trade fair earlier and was checking if we were still at Glorietta. I told her we were already at Sugi and invited her to join us.
In a few minutes, Florabel joined our party as well. And because a restaurateur was dining with us, we ordered so much food: we had all-time Sugi favorites like tofu steak special, ebi tempura, chicken liver with kuchay, tori teba nanbansuke, cold soba and kobe beef steak for our main course. Everything was absolutely delicious. To my surprise, Florabel picked up the tab because she celebrated her birthday last Sept. 27.
Sugi has been my favorite Japanese restaurant since my college days when Manuel and I were still dating way back in 1983. The first branch was at the original Greenbelt before they moved to Greenbelt 2 in 2002. In 1993, they also opened a branch at Greenhills but closed it permanently in 2012 when Greenhills Shopping Center had a major overhauling.
When I asked Tita Charrie Lim, who has been Sugi general manager since day one, if there’s a chance that Sugi will re-open at Greenhills, she said she’d rather concentrate on just one branch.
My love for Sugi has rubbed off on my daughter Gabbie who insists that she celebrate all her milestones there. Whether it’s for a birthday, passing the UPCAT exam, making the honor roll, or a graduation, any significant life event is a perfect excuse to eat at Sugi. She was actually sad when Sugi didn’t reopen in time for her birthday last June 8.
The new Sugi is truly worth a visit. Aside from the impeccable service and the consistently fresh and delicious food, the interiors are stunning. They are the work of Tita Charrie’s son, Jonathan Mendoza, who studied at the New York School of Interior Design; in collaboration with architect Lara Fernandez of Larawan Ink, a full-service architectural design firm that specializes in restaurant design and commercial interiors.
According to Jonathan, the inspiration was the intersection of rustic Japanese materiality and clean lines. They wanted to keep things minimal but at the same time exude warmth and comfort. The color palette was very cozy and soft to the eyes, making use of a lot of pale woods to contrast with the dark tile floors and sandstone accent walls.
The lighting was also carefully studied to make sure it exuded the right mood. But the biggest eye-catcher was the use of pale wooden beams to showcase the sushi bar. It gives off a graphic punch to the restaurant’s interiors.
As my daughter Gabbie said, it no longer looks like a typical Japanese family restaurant but now looks more refined and picture perfect. It was actually what the second generation Sugi team wanted to achieve: to bring the restaurant up to the standards of the new decade.
The new Sugi is a bit smaller than the former branch, with a seating capacity of 100 pax compared to the old location’s 130 pax capacity.
According to Butchito Campos, cousin of Manuel and son of Butch and Eloisa Campos and Tita Charrie’s future successor, there are still private rooms available for business meetings or family gatherings.
Before we called it a night, the waitresses came out and sang for birthday gal Florabel (Keren informed them earlier). We all got a kick out of singing to her while she blew the candle in her coffee jelly dessert. After we sang, Philip and Bobby Agana, brothers of my college barkada Pinky Agana, dropped by our table to say hello. I haven’t seen the brothers for over 20 years, and I was so happy to see them.
As Tita Charrie always says, “When you dine at Sugi, you’re bound to bump into a friend.”
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