The restaurant

THIS IS NOT an advertisement or an infomercial about the restaurant at our PRIMA CT Building in the Dumangas poblacion.

The restuarant has ceased operating as a full turo-turo restaurant. 

It now specializes on short orders like pancit lomi, batchoy, bihon guisado, chicken barbecue, sisig, halo-halo.

Dumangas has a lot of new eateries nowadays.

Please do not ask me to recommend something from Thelma’s Restaurant.

***

Thelma’s is named after my mom, Thelma.

It is operated by my brother and his family.

(And yes, I pay when I order their chicken barbecue; and especially when I have friends over, and we order pancit lomi.)

These are their bestsellers.

I am just happy that my friends enjoy the flavor.

Chicken barbecue: surprisingly good, but small portion.

Pancit lomi: tasty and generous. 

***

In the beginning, I didn’t like the idea that my mom gave her name to a restaurant.

What if it failed?

Thelma, the bankrupt?

But if the stories are to be believed, they had troubles registering a business name.

On their third try, they tried Thelma, and it registered easily.

Whatever!

***

The pandemic slowed the initially growing Thelma’s Restaurant.

But then, the pandemic also taught my sister-in-law to do business online.

Online selling, orders and deliveries, excellent!

The PRIMA CT Building being an easy landmark and convenient pickup center at the heart of the poblacion. 

***

And then, my brother and sister-in-law discovered their gift for food packs (styrofoam, but hey!), and bilao of goodies.

The food packs are ordered by teachers (my sister-in-law being active in PTA organizations), by the parish council, by the nearby municipio employees, by Rotarians, of which my brother is chapter immediate past president.

***

When I ask the customers, they say that they like to order from Thelma’s Restaurant because of its cleanliness (I presume they mean the food preparation), and nice food presentation.

To be fair, the restaurant’s siomai, carbonara, bihon or sotanghon guisado, fried lumpia, chicken lollipops, and baked mac are big hits, popular orders.

So, can you really blame the management if they focus on pre-orders and deliveries?

***

Why would they stock meat and veggies for a full restaurant operation if the fresh market is a stone’s throw across the street from us?

And why would they operate a restaurant (with unreliable client flow) when they can hardly fulfill the big orders for food packs and bilao delights?

***

I will not defend, or even advertise Thelma’s Restaurant.

I mean, they do well enough even without me.

In fact, if my friends who are visiting me in Dumangas are maarte, I take them somewhere expensive, and let them pay the bill.

***

Truth be told, I also ask them to pay the bill at Thelma’s Restaurant. Occasionally.

But generally, I pick up the bill. 

Especially if I’m not pissed off by their orders.

***

Why am I writing about the restaurant?

Well, I didn’t mean to.

It’s just that it’s a Wednesday afternoon, and I am writing this using the electric fan of the restaurant.

A group of students came up and ordered pancit lomi, and 1.5 L of Coke. 

They’re a little noisy, which gets me to thinking, can they afford what they ordered?

***

Truth, again: Thelma’s Restaurant carries with it a sense of sophistication.

It’s relatively clean (versus the turo-turo of the streets).

You climb up the stairs to get to the second floor of our building.

I mean, why would you climb up a restaurant if you don’t have enough money to order at least a batchoy or halu-halo?

Oh, and to be seen by people on the ground!

***

Thelma’s Restaurant opens to Buenaflor Street, and overlooks at the public market and municipal hall.

Our second floor also has a wall-to-wall glass wall, the first of its kind in our town.

So, imagine a great view of the streets down below, the municipal hall, the plaza, and some sections of the private school, the St. Augustine’s Catholic School.

***

Oh, and the restaurant is where you meet the itinerant marketers, salesmen, delivery people, and traveling merchants/agents.

The proverbial “strangers in the night, exchanging glances, lovers at first sight” although it happens that they stop by for lunch or post-lunch halu-halo.

And you take it from there, if you dare!/PN