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Saturday, April 23, 2005
LJC’s back-to-back return
One of Manila top restaurateurs brings back two leading brands to Cebu
The grand opening of Café Havana at Ayala Center Cebu on April 27 marks the return to Cebu of the legendary restaurant group of Manila, the LJC Restaurant Group, after an absence of three years from the Cebu lifestyle scene.
Founded in 1979 by journalist-information man Larry J. Cruz, the LJC Group grew from a little café at the corner of Adriatico st. in Malate to a chain of popular stylish Filipino bistros and cafes that once spanned the oceans from Manila to Daly city, California to Georgetown, Washington DC, and Hong Kong.
Cruz brought his flagship restaurant Café Adriatico to Cebu in 1989 and set it up in an old art-deco concrete house on Ramos Street. The old café became the favorite hangout of Cebu’s social elite, the media, and foreign tourists. In 2001, with mall locations becoming fashionable, Cruz closed down the Ramos operations and gave the franchise to a retail group who opened an Adriatico outlet in Ayala Center Cebu and another one in Crossroads.
The franchise arrangement ended last March 20 and Cruz decided to take over the Café Adriatico operations to coincide with the branch opening of his internationally famous Café Havana at the Ayala Center Cebu. Café Adriatico Cebu will be reopened after renovations are completed at the remaining Crossroads outlet sometime in May.
“The takeover of Café Adriatico is logical as we are about to come in strongly with the opening of Café Havana,” said Cruz. “We can scale costs down with two operating outlets. We are very thankful to the Aldeguer family of Cebu for keeping the Café Adriatico name alive and respected in the interim. The Aldeguers have decided to concentrate on their Cebu-based retail business.”
(April 23, 2005 issue)
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