Is Lamesa Filipino Kitchen coming to Mississauga?
Published December 9, 2013 at 6:00 am
The next restaurant we’re featuring in our T.O. Restos We Wish We Had In Mississauga series is Lamesa Filipino Kitchen.
Les Sabilano, co-owner/general manager and Rudy Boquila, executive chef/co-owner, are innovators and leaders of nouveau Filipino cuisine. It’s definitely not your typical home cooked meal, but rather a modern interpretation of traditional Filipino dishes. They are at the forefront of introducing progressive Filipino cuisine and placing Filipino food on the map.
Since there’s a sizeable Filipino community in Mississauga, it would make sense for Lamesa to make its way to the west side — and according to Les Sabilano, Sauga is on the map.
What is the restaurant and menu concept of Lamesa Filipino Kitchen?
The concept is Filipino nouveau. It’s sort of a regional interpretation of Filipino cuisine, using local ingredients and modern French techniques to produce a progressive style of Filipino food. Underlying all of that is ensuring we do it without betraying any tradition and stay true to the cuisine by creating authentic flavours.
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What do you think of Mississauga’s food scene?
I don’t get a chance to go to Mississauga too much. My wife’s family is from Brampton so a lot of times we end up at Square One or places in and around Mississauga. I don’t often get a chance to eat in Mississauga outside of Tremendous. But I would love to explore more; it’s a growing city with a really vibrant, multicultural community, so I’d imagine that it’s probably pretty exciting.
What do you look for when scouting for a new location? Is Mississauga on the map? Why or why not?
Absolutely, for us especially, and we look for a Filipino population for sure. Although when opening up here on Queen St. (in Toronto), there is no Filipino population, so even without that information, we wanted to open here for other reasons. For Mississauga, one big reason would be the size of the Filipino population and the fact that some of our current customers come in from Mississauga. I feel that there is a bit of a base there.
Do you find that people are coming from all over the place to Lamesa?
Yeah, I think that people are hearing about us by word of mouth, and I’m not saying that they are coming in droves yet, but when they come, they will come on the weekends and it will be their night out. We’ve had people come in from Oshawa and Hamilton and from places that are close enough to make the trip.
Are most of your customers Filipino?
We’ve been fortunate to enjoy a 50/50 customer base of non-Filipino and Filipino, which is good. Some people come in from out of town because they find us online, including people that are here for business.
When do you plan on opening in Sauga?
There are no solid plans yet, but when we get this restaurant more established and we feel like we’ve established a customer base that can support this place, we would definitely look to expand. Because the mission of the company is to bring Filipino cuisine to the mainstream, moving to a place like Mississauga would be a logical step, as well as other places like Vancouver, Winnipeg, New York, and L.A.
What would Sauga need to do to compel you to come here?
Nothing, we already want to come to Mississauga.
669 Queen Street West
Toronto ON M6J 1E6 Canada
www.lamesafilipinokitchen.com
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