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Meet Miguel Pacle and Grace Frost of Filberto’s Authentic Filipino Cuisine in Columbus

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Miguel Pacle and Grace Frost.

Miguel and Grace, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
As a family tradition, we’ve always loved hosting gatherings, parties and dinners. For the longest, we were catering our parties and our friend’s parties without knowing it. To us, it was just an act of giving back. Until one day in late May of 2020, a friend of ours called and asked if we can cater individual plates to a bakery company in Columbus. They had another 18 plates of our Pork BBQ Skewers and Caldereta (Tomato-based Beef Stew) with each plate consisting of a Filipino staple, Rice, Pancit (Stir-fry noodles), and Lumpia (Pork Egg Rolls).

From then we thought, why don’t we start selling plates to our other friends on Facebook? I had posted it in my personal account and it garnered an overwhelming market. I have seen an ad on Facebook for a local farmer’s market event looking for vendors and I immediately applied. Days after, we got approved and July 11th of 2020 is when we held our very first pop-up with Market Days on Broadway at Uptown Columbus. With enough marketing on Facebook, we had an impressive turnout and eventually sold out in two hours. Market Days on Broadway gave us a weekly permanent Pop-Up location. We have also been invited in different parts of town, including Midland and Fort Benning, GA, while we continue our Daily Lunch Specials and Catering services.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It definitely has not been a smooth road for us. We didn’t really know how a pop-up restaurant worked and what the game plan was week by week. Everyone at home was unemployed due to Covid-19 so we were really trying to figure out how we can be as profitable because we’re trying to make ends meet. We’ve struggled on learning how to work efficiently without staying up until 2 am doing prep work and waking up at 5 am on Saturday to start cooking and setting up our pop-up restaurant.

We are a family of overachievers and perfectionists. We didn’t really realize that our menu is as big as a restaurant that functions in a brick and mortar. We also had to deal with making sure that we make the most profit on dishes that we can spend the least time with. Overall, with us only operating for about four months, these struggles didn’t really hinder us from functioning better, rather it served as a challenge for us to be more flexible and be more adaptable to change because not every pop-up is the same. We encounter different scenarios in our pop-up, whether it is a smaller or bigger turnout than expected or a change in weather, and these struggles just made us prepared and ready for it.

We’d love to hear more about your business.
Filberto’s Authentic Filipino Cuisine is a Pop-Up Restaurant and Catering service offering a weekly rotating menu of selected famous Filipino dishes. The name Filberto’s is from our grandma and grandpa FILomena and alBERTO. Filberto’s is composed of 5 eclectic, enthusiastic and lively key players that makes our Pop-Up possible – Grace Frost (Head Chef), Miguel Pacle (Manager/Marketing Head/Assistant Chef), Paulo Belano (Assistant Chef/Pastry Chef), Chelsea Pacle (Grill Master) and Irene Aquino (Customer Service).

Some of our best sellers are our Pancit, Lumpia, Pork BBQ Skewers, which are grilled pork on a skewer, marinated in garlic, soy sauce, lemon juice, ketchup, sugar with filipino style bbq sauce, Adobo which is simmered chicken or pork in soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, peppercorns and bay leaves, browned in the marinade until tender and Sisig which is minced pork ears, belly, and snout, red onion, and thai chili peppers, boiled, grilled and sautéed with soy sauce and lemon juice.

One of our goals in Filberto’s is for our customers to feel the inviting and warm Filipino hospitality. We want you to eat your food as if you’re eating from our home with us, in a one big dining table, the Filipino way. We want you to feel the sense of belongingness. Making money is one thing, but introducing and putting FILIPINO FOOD in Columbus’ food scene is just as important to us. It is time for authentic Filipino cooking to be mainstream. I think that is what sets us apart. We’re really in no competition with anybody and we have a clearer perception of the goals that we are trying to achieve.

What were you like growing up?
We grew up in a very family-oriented, conservative, and Catholic environment growing up. With all of us attending a catholic high school in the Philippines, our faith and religion made our bond stronger as a family. Our family has always been fascinated with cooking. Our passion in cooking resulted in to family’s bonding and past time. Our home has been welcome for everyone. We love hosting parties and gatherings to show off our cooking skills, especially our Head Chef, Grace Frost.

Pricing:

  • Pork BBQ Skewers Plate ~ $11
  • Adobo Plate ~ $11
  • Pancit/Lumpia Combo ~ $7

Contact Info:

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