Taste and style are the very core of the Cebuana businesswoman and philanthropist Amparito Llamas Lhuillier, and she carries this on to her new gastronomy venture, the equally stylish and ambitious Casa Amparito restaurant.
Casa Amparito is a homage of sorts to the former Amparito Continental Cuisine, a 70-seater restaurant along Mango Avenue in the late 80s to the early 90s. "We were always full then, so I want to bring it back," noted Amparito who really accepted her husband Michel's challenge of revamping the old Pino. "He asked me if I could take over, and of course I said yes. You know me, I like challenges," she shared. After a year and a half of painstaking planning and recruiting, the team is finally confident for Casa Amparito to join Cebu's vast array of dining experiences but eager to stand out and give new heights to dining pleasure among discerning Cebuanos.
The main dining room seats about 100 comfortably, while the adjacent café and piano bar, which also accepts private functions, seats about 70. A hardwood staircase leads to the 80 to 90-seater dining area on the 2nd floor which is also available for private functions. An al fresco grill as well as take-out counter are also in the works.
Casa Amparito also serves as another venue for Amparito's philantrophy. The restaurant employs a handful of her scholars from the Amparito Llamas Lhuillier Foundation, some of whom now work as accountants for the resto. "I really love helping people," Amparito enthused saying that providing deserving students a chance to get a good education is one of her primary advocacies. As a businesswoman, Mrs. Lhuillier believes in investing in good people as they are the key to any business venture's true success and she seems to have found the best in the Casa Amparito team.
The new restaurant lineup includes General Manager Marina Codina whose education and experience in the F&B industry is just as international as Casa Amparito's cuisine. Marina obtained a hotel management degree from the Hotel Consult in Brig, Switzerland, and followed it up with BSBA from Schiller International school in London, later still attending Cordon Bleu cooking school also in London for a diploma in culinary arts.
In the case of Chef Dino Guingona, it was less of a chance encounter. He was introduced to Amparito by her son Charles who owns Brasserie Boheme, the restaurant of the Picasso Boutique in Manila of which Chef Dino is the Executive Chef. Although he is anxious about working for the finicky Cebuano market, Chef Dino is self-assured about the vast arsenal of items on the Casa Amparito menu. With a culinary arts degree from the California Culinary Academy, Chef Dino went on to work for The Ritz Carlton in San Francisco. Under the supervision of Chef Dino, the Casa Amparito menu promises unique and exotic flavors including stuffed crocodile and ostrich steak while keeping Pino best sellers such as the crispy pata, laing and tenderloin steak!
Though the team, interiors and menu of Casa Amparito are worldly and sophisticated, they don't veer too far away from the lady herself. The restaurant simply mirrors the woman behind the name, Casa Amparito is stylish and refined but all the while warm and unintimidating!