Sari Sari Store’s Filipino Stall at Grand Central Market Opens July 14

Margarita and Walter Manzke’s Filipino rice bowl stall Sari Sari Store officially opens tomorrow July 14 inside Grand Central Market in the former Bar Moruno space, and already the place is buzzing with anticipation. Yesterday, the Manzkes were doing mock services and cooking up sisig, barbecue pork ribs, breakfast sandwiches, and blacked eggplant over garlic rice, along with calamansi and passionfruit sodas.

The general form of Bar Moruno stays in place, but Walter has added a bunch of touches to make it feel like a Filipino neighborhood variety store (sari-sari), like cans of condensed milk and big bottles of white vinegar. They’ve even added a crinkled tin roof and a large false wall above the space to give it the feeling that it’s placed on the bottom floor of an apartment complex, as one would find in Manila.

On the menu, everything essentially comes with a nicely fried egg and even some nice garnishes, a nice touch for affordable fast-casual fare inside Grand Central Market. Sari Sari Store not only adds a an approachable restaurant to the Manzke’s restaurant collection (they have a slew of places in Manila), it brings well-conceived Filipino food at a time when the cuisine is all the rage within food circles.

Sari Sari Store’s hours will be 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, with eventual dinner service.

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