How trendy has Filipino cuisine become? Bad Saint owners Nick Pimentel and Genevieve Villamora sold-out their weekend pop-up at Crane & Turtle in under three hours after announcing the impromptu dinners earlier today.
The fascinating thing is, the pop-up sold out with barely any details about the dinner itself. Villamora and Pimentel preferred to remain mostly mum about the five-course menu planned for their second pop-up, other than to say chef Tom Cunanan's meal will delve "deeper into the Malay, Chinese and Spanish roots of the cuisine" than the first Bad Saint pop-up at Dolcezza Gelato Factory & Coffee Lab, according to a release dropped today.
"We thought a set menu would give folks the chance to try a lot of different dishes from all over the country," Villamora wrote via e-mail. "Folks will see ampalaya (the Filipino word for bitter melon) and lambneck. We're working on our own version of the beloved national dish, adobo."
The pop-up is scheduled to run from 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Crane & Turtle, where the kitchen staff will be taking a culinary research trip to Japan. The multi-course menu cost diners $60 per person for their choice of either an omnivore or a vegetarian menu.
Bad Saint, a joint project between Villamora and Room 11's Pimentel, is expected to open this winter at 3226 11th St. NW in Columbia Heights. If you didn't manage to snag a seat at the pop-up this weekend and you can't wait for the Bad Saint debut, you can always check out a $20 Diner favorite, Manila Mart in Beltsville, where the owners offer a wide variety of sweet and savory Filipino dishes.
Bad Saint pop-up, Saturday and Sunday, at Crane & Turtle, 828 Upshur St. NW in Petworth. Wait list requests: 202-670-4409.