CELEBRATION TOGETHER

MALU GAMBOA says the trademark of their restaurants is the ‘clubhouse’ feel. “They continue to come back for different celebrations. Years later, they return with their children. For some, even their grandchildren!” she says

- MICA TORRES CRUZ

Seeing her mother Julie run the ice cream parlor turned restaurant Milky Way since the ’60s, Malu Gamboa realized she would gladly join the food business one day. Upon finishing her college and master's education in the US, it was time to come home and take over.

TRAVEL INSPIRATION

In 1980, Malu's parents together with architect Raul Locsin constructed a building on 900 Pasay Road. This housed a Milky Way outlet and the Gamboas’s Japanese restaurant Tsukiji along with a sandwich bar and a pizza spot, which were both leasees. I was tasked to come up with a concept that would not compete with the existing restaurants in the building, yet would be a popular choice for lunch, dinner, and late-night dining,” she shares.

While Malu was in Madrid with friends, she discovered tapas. She was impressed at how the Spanish enjoyed these small plates of food ordered in the middle of the day, pairing with cocktails, appetizers before dinner, or as a nightcap snack.

I knew immediately that was what I wanted to bring to Manila,” Malu says. “And so El Circulo first opened its red, round doors on August 1, 1995, as Manila's first tapas bar.