It started off with family, friends and food.
In December of 1999, the Bustamante siblings (Boy, Pilar, Paula and Paolo), together with Rengie Galvez toyed with the idea of putting up a small restaurant at an empty spot in the Bustamante household located at 53 Connecticut St. in Greenhills.
This was the time when Greenhills was slowly becoming a commercial area. By February 2000, Petra Café Gallerie (named after the late mother of the Bustamante siblings) was born.
Taking charge of the kitchen of Petra (pronounced Peetra), Paolo and Rengie concocted original recipes born out of their passion for cooking. The place thus created a small following of customers that wanted the friendly and homey ambience with recipes that resembled home-style cooking with a twist.
In October of 2000, the Bustamante household moved next door… and so did Petra. Unfortunately, because of the owners’ individual work schedules, the restaurant closed in April 2002.
In April 2004, Paulo and Rengie thought of resurrecting Petra. This time, Paolo asked his good friend, actor Brad Turvey, to join the fold. In a matter of days, the deal was sealed and Petra was to be revived with Paolo, Rengie and Brad coming in as managing directors.
The new Petra Café Gallerie takes on the look and feel of the old one — the same homey ambience, concept and color scheme — except that the space is now bigger.
The place is still adorned with the old-style resin fixtures with photographs and paintings hanging on the walls.
But more than the look and ambience, what makes Petra stand out is the food. Petra is still known for its “freestyle” cooking — a fusion of Asian, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese.
Paolo and Rengie pride themselves with the fact that all the dishes are done with a very limited kitchen inventory to come up with new dishes using the same ingredients with different combinations. Brad had even taken to concocting some of his own recipes.
These include “Sea of Red” (tomato cream chowder with seafood chunks), “Something Shrimpy” (prawns in a chorizo cream sauce), “Stop Chicken” (deboned chicken leg quarter stuffed with cheese and asparagus), “My Secret Identity” (pasta with seafood and chicken chunks, similar to a paella valenciana but using pasta instead of rice), to name a few.
For dessert, Petra serves the house favorite Panna Cotta, baked cheesecakes, choc-nut mousse, white chocolate fondue and double chocolate overload, complemented by Italian coffee concoction called “Illy.”
Petra Café Gallerie is in Greenhills Commercial Complex.
