LIKE THE Filipino tradition it has been named after, Barrio Fiesta was, for a whole generation of Filipinos, a place for festivities, celebrations and the gathering of families and friends. Many milestones were marked by a visit to a Barrio Fiesta branch.

But it must have taken a lot of spunk and courage when Sixta Evangelista Ongpauco decided to turn her home on what was then Highway 54 (now Epifanio de los Santos Avenue or Edsa) in Caloocan City into the first Filipino fine dining restaurant, with a menu made up almost entirely of native delicacies.

After all, 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, and other western-style restaurants.

But Ongpauco, Mama Chit to people who had had the good fortune to be invited to her home and savor her favorite recipes, was not only a food lover and great cook but, in hindsight, also had quite a sharp and sound business sense.

Calling her restaurant Barrio Fiesta was a stroke of genius, for starters. A fiesta is always associated with the best in Filipino cooking. People do not serve their daily fare during this traditional celebration but offer a spread of their most special recipes, prepared with the freshest and choicest ingredients.

While Filipinos in the later 1950s might not go out for food similar to lutong-bahay, the promise of having special fiesta food probably was tempting. Soon Barrio Fiesta became the venue of choice for events and occasions people hoped to remember for a long, long time, if not forever. Weddings, graduations, christenings, birthdays ? celebrations were not true celebrations unless they were held at Barrio Fiesta.

Inspired decision

Making the Kare-kare the centerpiece of the menu was another inspired decision. Many Filipinos loved the dish but preparation was tedious. Having somebody do it ? and excellently, too ?meant they could enjoy the dish as often as they wanted without the hassle. The steaming palayok (earthen pot) of Kare-kare that comprised the restaurant?s logo showed people the way to the place where they could enjoy their favorite dish any time they craved it.

Later, people would also be enticed by the Crispy Pata. Son Rodolfo came up with the idea of deep-frying the pork knuckles (pata) used in his mother?s recipe to make it crispy and distinctive.

Filipino way

Barrio Fiesta enhanced bonding among kith and kin by serving food in 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.

As Ongpauco?s eight children grew up, they opened their own branches. But sometime in the last couple of decades or so and at a time when Filipinos? eating habits had changed to make going to a restaurant serving local dishes as much a special treat as going to a continental, Japanese or high-end Chinese establishment, the house of Kare-kare seemed to lose steam.

While many new Filipino restaurants opened and aggressively marketed themselves, the Barrio Fiesta chain seemed to have become no more than just a memory of good times past for many people.

Corazon Ongpauco Tamayo, a daughter of the founder, admitted they ?became too complacent,? secure in the reputation the chain had built through the years. But, as upstarts began to surge ahead, the family finally realized it could not be business as usual anymore.

In the newest branch that Tamayo opened on Edsa in the Greenhills (Mandaluyong City) area, the menu retained traditional best-sellers like the Kare-kare and Crispy Pata but also adapted to new eating preferences and habits.

Classic reinvented

A seafood version of the popular Kare-kare is now available for people who want to avoid meat. It also comes in two sizes ?half, P210; and family, P330.

As dining out is no longer a strictly ?group? event and many people dine alone or in very small groups, Barrio Fiesta Greenhills? Crispy Pata now comes in small, medium and large sizes to allow everyone a chance to savor the popular item on the menu. In Barrio Fiesta jargon, the serving sizes are called kuko, taas, gitna (nail, top and middle). The traditional serving size could be considered extra large.

Increasingly becoming a favorite among Greenhills customers is Mama Chit?s Special, a bilao of seafood items that comes in two sizes ? half, P437, and family, P658.

For those who want to cap a good meal with pastry, Barrio Fiesta Greenhills offers cakes made by Tamayo?s sister, Kris Ongpauco Cauton, that are also available in sizes just big enough for two or three people to share.

The restaurant on the ground floor of a building that served as warehouse for Tamayo?s catering business for 32 years has a main hall that seats 80 people. The panels of a 100-person capacity function room may be drawn aside to create a single space to accommodate more people.

Barrio Fiesta Greenhills, which is open 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. seven days a week, also delivers.

Keeping the dishes? tastes authentic and true to the flavors loyal clients had gotten used to is attributed by Tamayo to the fact that cooks learn the restaurant?s dishes by apprenticeship rather than expensive training in high-end culinary schools. Tamayo says the current kitchen crew was trained by her mother?s original staff. It is, in turn, training the next generation of Barrio Fiesta cooks by example and hands-on work.

Catering

Tamayo also runs Good Mixes by Barrio Fiesta that serves the chain?s best known items at the Valero and De la Rosa carparks in Makati City and the Fiesta International Catering Services, a full-service catering company that offers both Filipino and international cuisine and elegant dining setups.

With Kare-kare being the flagship dish of her business, Tamayo ensures its quality by making all the peanut butter and bagoong it requires. The peanut butter, made from scratch and not the mass-produced kind available in supermarkets and groceries, is a major reason why the Barrio Fiesta Kare-kare is quite different from most places?. The bagoong, now available in big stores, is also made specifically for the Barrio Fiesta Kare-kare.

Tamayo also supplies peanut butter and bagoong to branches owned by her siblings. Although the branches are no longer in the spots people knew, the chain now has 20 outlets in and outside the Philippines.

Indeed, the Barrio Fiesta name and tradition are very much alive and well, even blazing new trails in Filipino fine dining.

Barrio Fiesta Greenhills is on Edsa corner Rochester Street, Mandaluyong City; tel. 5719842 and 7267836. Visit Fiesta International at www.fiestainternationalcatering.com or call 5141000 and 7267836.