When Charlemagne Lim opens his eponymous bistro in Quezon City, it will be a homecoming. After all, it was in this city that he gained a reputation for being the highly visible, hands-on owner of Little Asia, a favorite of residents as well as celebrities and executives from ABS-CBN and GMA-7 for well over a decade.
“I was 25 years old when I opened Little Asia in December 2001,” Lim told me in a recent interview. “For the first 15 months since we opened, I was the first person in and the last to leave. I didn’t take any breaks during that entire period but I would take power naps in the back office, arranging several chairs in a row and lying on them for a few minutes.”
He was in charge of F&B and many other aspects required in running a standalone restaurant together with his sister Charlynn who has been by his side from the get-go. Lim is upfront and admits that while he doesn’t cook, he knows what tastes good and what will click with customers.
Common caption: Little Asia classics — fried chicken, fried vermicelli rolls, bopis fried rice and honey walnut shrimp — will make a comeback in Quezon City with the opening of ‘Bistro Charlemagne, a concept by Little Asia.’ PHOTOS BY RAOUL CHEE KEE
Common caption: Little Asia classics — fried chicken, fried vermicelli rolls, bopis fried rice and honey walnut shrimp — will make a comeback in Quezon City with the opening of ‘Bistro Charlemagne, a concept by Little Asia.’ PHOTOS BY RAOUL CHEE KEE
Common caption: Little Asia classics — fried chicken, fried vermicelli rolls, bopis fried rice and honey walnut shrimp — will make a comeback in Quezon City with the opening of ‘Bistro Charlemagne, a concept by Little Asia.’ PHOTOS BY RAOUL CHEE KEE
Common caption: Little Asia classics — fried chicken, fried vermicelli rolls, bopis fried rice and honey walnut shrimp — will make a comeback in Quezon City with the opening of ‘Bistro Charlemagne, a concept by Little Asia.’ PHOTOS BY RAOUL CHEE KEE
In the 13 years that Little Asia ruled its corner roost on Morato Ave., customers turned into regulars who hardly glanced at the menu when they visited; they could rattle off their tried and tested favorites like fried vermicelli rolls, honey walnut shrimp, beef tenderloin with cheese, lengua in white mushroom sauce, and crispy fried chicken.
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After Lim closed Little Asia in 2014, he opened Bistro Charlemagne, choosing to open inside malls. “I studied the market and saw that malls were the place to be at the time. People wanted a place where they could eat, shop and be entertained.”
The pandemic led to a shift in consumers’ spending habits and the malls’ glossy appeal soon lost their luster. Lim experienced that first-hand when his branch at Ayala Malls Manila Bay was the only one that opened and remained operational on what had been marketed as the mall’s restaurant level.
On a pinned public post on Instagram (@bistrocharlemagne), Lim wrote, “We opened on Dec. 23. 2019 and we [haven’t had] a single neighbor for the past six years. We [were] the only restaurant on the 3rd floor by the al fresco hallway.”
He has since closed that branch and is preparing to open a spacious, two-storey branch on Mother Ignacia street in Quezon City. Lim was practically buzzing with excitement as he talked about the transfer, the menu, the interiors, the ample parking and what he hopes will be a triumphal return to the city where it all first started.
Since he announced the opening of the QC branch, he has been getting calls and messages daily from regulars who tell him how much they’ve missed the food they grew up eating.
“It’s called ‘Bistro Charlemagne, a concept by Little Asia’ because I wanted to include other items that aren’t necessarily Asian in origin. Some of our bestsellers now include the rootbeer beef ribs and Southern-style fried chicken,” Lim said.
One item that I personally am looking forward to ordering again — aside from the addicting old-school fried chicken made from a recipe of his grandfather’s from the 1950s — is their bopis fried rice. Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it. It’s a delicious one-dish meal that’s smoky and filling and topped with a generous amount of diced meat.
