Old house, new rules

IT’S THE STORY of a house, a family, and food.

- Joseph L. Garcia

Rachelle Panlaqui sat down with BusinessWorld for lunch on Oct. 7 as she told the story of Qui Pan Asian Brasserie.

While relatively new, opening late in 2023, the restaurant is housed in a midcentury home in Valencia, Quezon City. The family that once owned it is still very much present, leasing their ancestral home to Ms. Panlaqui and her family, while retaining their offices next to it.

Despite studying government at university, Ms. Panlaqui has always been surrounded by food. Her family in Pampanga has had a food business since the 1970s, by her estimate, while she herself opened a Kapampangan eatery in 2011, later expanding it to a catering service, until opening Qui.

Her roots are very much present in Qui (sharing the venture with two other siblings), though her own growth is reflected: Qui exists to reflect her travels in Asia and bring back a little bit of her travels with the true taste of home.