Pardon My French was borne out of PYC Foods Corp. president Jun Sy’s love of music and food. A self-confessed frustrated musician, he spent the lockdown getting people together to play music at home. He joked that he had to feed people in his living room as an incentive to listen to him play with his band.

Think of French restaurants and what comes to mind? Chances are it’s the stuffy, highfalutin establishments where you’d be expected to know your salad fork from your dinner fork and come in fancy dresses and suits.

WHEN we think about French food, it’s easy to think about feasts with sauces and names that are hard to pronounce, and a snooty chef towering over one’s shoulder wincing at your choices. Thankfully, Pardon My French in Bel-Air’s Jupiter St. dispenses with the pretension and we could all just have a good time.

Pardon My French is not only one of Makati’s newest dining and entertainment destinations. The French-Asian restaurant also envisions to relive those fun nights of eating, drinking, dancing and socializing for today’s generation of Filipinos.

Live music, creative cocktails, and unconventional global cuisines are among the things you will get to experience if you visit Pardon My French. Whether on a date or a get-together with family or friends, you will get to feast on French classics like escargot, baked aged camembert, duck confit, and the timeless steak.

I've always wanted to go to an old-fashioned supper club, the kind that offered good food and drink, an intimate setting, thoughtful service, and a really good show. The sort of place that called for kitten heels and your mother's dainty pearls. Well, what do you know?

The music’s back along Jupiter Street in Makati, And it’s back with an elegant French flair with is lavish repertoire of sumptuous cuisine and handcrafted cocktails along with live entertainment. It’s the return of cool at Jupiter Street. And then some…

BACK in the days when our parents (or grandparents) still went out with their friends and socialized to meet new people, they would go to these entertainment-cum-dining hubs that offered cocktails and a show, and then dine on an array of sumptuous international dishes. They were called supper clubs.

In the sense of dining, French restaurants seem like the behemoth newer foodies have yet to gobble up and conquer. With the Parisian gastronomic experience appearing to be almost synonymous with fine cuisine, it’s easy to be intimidated. But once in a while, fresh spots ease newcomers in, offering twists that’ll have anyone eager to peek in.

Who here remembers Strumm’s Makati? If you are of a ~certain generation, you might remember this iconic live music staple – it was Jupiter Street’s “place to be” for live ’80s and ’90s music, variety bands, events, or after-work drinks with officemates and weekend hangouts with friends.

The pandemic shut many businesses down, temporarily or forever, and that includes the iconic Strumm’s, along Jupiter Street in Makati City. The restaurant and live music venue initially denied rumors of its closure, with the owner insisting in a Facebook post in 2020 that it was “relocating to a bigger and better venue.”