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Los Angeles just lost one of its beloved modern Filipino American restaurants with the closure of Ma’am Sir along Sunset Boulevard, its chef and owner Charles Olalia announced on Friday, August 28.
Olalia took to Instagram to share the fate of her restaurant, which had occupied 1,800-square-foot space in the Silver Lake neighborhood since June 2018.
“It all started with a wish. I wanted a place where Lucas can run and play, a place where people can come and enjoy Filipino cuisine, and an overall beautiful restaurant for the community to come together. Madam sir fulfilled that for me and much more. Madam sir it was my home. God heard my prayers and blessed us with this place, ”said the publication.
The chef, who is originally from Pampanga, Philippines, had planned to pursue a medical career, but came to the United States in 2005 and ended up enrolling in a culinary program.
Trained in French cuisine and fine dining, Olalia’s experiences include The French Laundry, Patina (where she spent four years moving up from second chef to chef de cuisine and then executive chef) and mar’sel at Terranea Resort.
In 2015, she began hosting family-style pop-up dinners by the name of A’postrophe, where she had the opportunity to cook dishes that she grew up eating. That led to Rice Bar, a seven-seat, 275-square-foot space in downtown Los Angeles that received numerous accolades, including a spot on the late food critic Jonathan Gold’s 101 Best Restaurants list. (Rice Bar finally closed in 2019 because Olalia wanted to focus more on the Silver Lake restaurant.)
“This was my way of claiming my own heritage and making it available to the people the way I see it,” he told Asian newspaper in a previous interview.
In June 2018, he opened the doors to Ma’am Sir, which featured a menu that featured instant favorites like sea urchin lumpia to happy birthday chicken. It became a gathering place for the community to share family-style meals or get together for a drink as the cocktail menu featured Filipino flavors and spirits. The place from the beginning earned its place in the Los Angeles Times‘ “101 Restaurants We Love” and GQ’s “America’s Best New Restaurants.”
As Ma’am Sir may be one of the latest victims of restaurants in Los Angeles, Olalia held out hope of welcoming diners back in the future in another way.
“There will come a time when I will be able to receive them again,” he wrote, adding: “As generic as it may seem, I may have closed this chapter, but I gained family in all of you.”
He told the Asian newspaper in 2018, “Every time I open a restaurant, I always want to create a community. I would love for people to make us part of their lives. “
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