A FLASHBACK TO AN ELEGANT MANILA that existed long before my parents were born.
The Legarda Mansion was built in 1937 as one of the first Art Deco houses in Manila. Located in what was considered a glamorous district in the city and only steps away from the presidential palace, the mansion housed Alejandro Legarda and his wife Ramona, an elegant hostess famed for her lavish parties and culinary expertise.
Today, the ancestral home houses La Cocina de Tita Moning, a restaurant and family museum initiated by Suzette Legarda Montinola, granddaughter to Alejandro and Ramona Moning Legarda. Employing Doña Ramona's original staff and serving her famous dishes in the family's antique tableware, La Cocina de Tita Moning recreates the dining atmosphere once enjoyed by Manila's dapper crowd.
Beyond the multiple-course meal, the house maintains each room as they were with Don Alejandro's library, clinic, camera and radio equipment rooms on the ground floor, and a ballerina dressing room for the daughters upstairs.
Art, design, antiques and a memory of an illustrious past fill the rest.
Thank you Gino and Karlo for this very well thought-out Kris Kringle present! We loved it!
La Cocina de Tita Moning, 315 San Rafael Street, San Miguel District, Manila. www.lacocinadetitamoning.com Photos by Lady San Pedro.
COMMENTS
lady, this is so special. thanks for sharing. can we also visit this house? Oh I am currently in Bacolod, visiting my Dad:-) Ill be in Manila next week! Hoping for some art fix there:-)
oh wow! I really enjoyed this post! What a fabulous history lesson. I must eat at this restaurant next time I'm in town!
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