If you’re in Paris, zip to the ethereal pop up resto bar Casa Don Papa by proudly Philippine Don Papa Rum at Maison Lautrec! Yummy Philippine inspired dishes is served by Reyna’s culinary queen chef Erica Paredes.
It was starting to drizzle when we stepped out of the taxi that brought us to the now hippy part of Pigalle, Paris’ center of sin. Well, it’s where everything happens now at night and it rushed me back to the 1960’s sexposé film “Mondo Cane” with the flashing neon lights, the private clubs and flesh being sold so brazenly, it’s quite decadently colorful!
Making sure we didn’t get splashed by a drop of rain was movie star looks Matthias Cadeac d’Abaud, Global Brand Ambassador for Don Papa. He looked delicious in an all white suit and brought us into the already jumping bar filled with influencers, fashion photographers and cool Parisians who couldn’t stop taking shots of the iconic Don Papa Rum bottle.
As I elbowed my way to order our drinks, shagreen Queen Ria Aougusti and UNESCO diplomat Jennifer Brunner went to the dining area with my cousin Ramona Chan who’s doing further business studies here. We were soon joined by elegant Bianca Monzon-Cueva and before we knew it, our table got bigger with Philippine blogger Ria Recto and hubby Paolo Prieto with the grand surprise of the evening, top Philippine photographer Mark Nicdao who shot the best selling Rogue magazine issue on Negros Island’s iconic personalities. Yes, people are still talking about THAT issue.
Much to our surprise and delight were two art performers who slipped in through the windows, masked and dressed up like exotic birds to amuse the now giddy and rowdy crowd. More drinks were being mixed at the bar, giving a constant sound of a hundred mariacas shaking to the top Parisian beats.
To top it all, finger food from Reyna were served to the now inebriated chic crowd and we gorged on giant raw oysters with a twist on our sinamak, crispy lechon skin and just as my head started to spin, I reveled on the surprise of salted duck egg at the bottom of a mini goblet that had a slice of corn on the cob slathered with some tomato ketchup?!!
Bravo to Don Papa Rum’s top honcho Stephen Carroll and his team for bringing this event to trendy Parisian nights.
MY PRAYER
This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.” Jeremiah 31:33–34, NIV*
