Baguio's Famous Laperal White House Is Now an Upscale Restaurant
ILLUSTRATOR LEANA VIBAL
With its pine-scented, crisp, and cool air, Baguio City is the place to be if you want to have a break from the usual tropical and humid climate of the country. A-plus weather aside, it's also a great place to shop, eat, and even go ghost-hunting. Yup, the City of Pines does not have a shortage of spooky and cooky haunts. It has seen it all, from war to devastating calamities—Baguio is definitely not all sunshine and rainbows.
Arguably, one of the more famous haunted sites in the area is the Laperal White House—a Victorian-style house along Leonard Wood Road said to be home to a white lady that haunts guests of the then-summer home-turned-museum. While we're not ghost-busting experts, if there really is a white lady running around the White House, then she's about to get busier in the coming days, as the Laperal White House has been reborn. It's been turned into an upscale dining establishment called Joseph's, and it's set to have its soft opening really soon, on December 26.
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Wine and Dine at Baguio's famous haunted Laperal White House:
Those interested in dining at Joseph's can do so from Wednesdays to Mondays from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. for lunch and from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. for dinner. Reservations are strictly required and can be made on the restaurant's website.
Joseph's Baguio will be serving continental food highlighting contemporary French cuisine with dishes like Roleaux de Ratatouille, Confit de Cuisse de Canard, a.k.a. Duck Confit, and Filet Mignon Rossini headlining the entrées. And if you're worried about how authentic these French dishes will be, rest easy. According to their website, the menu has been developed by a French chef with a decade's worth of experience at a Michelin- starred restaurant. Talk about fancy! While the current menu on the restaurant's website still doesn't have any prices listed, we're betting this place is going to make our wallets cry but our tummies happy.
Spooky tales aside, the Laperal White House is a beauty, so it was no surprise that business tycoon Lucio Tan took an interest and developed the 1930s home. Initially an open-to-the-public museum, the Yakal and Narra wood-clad building has been further renovated with customized furniture and equipment to house the kitchen and dining area for Joseph's while maintaining the structure's original foundations and high ceilings.
And if these photos of the building's old interiors are any indication, it looks like dining at the Laperal White House will be a high-brow experience worth putting on our Baguio to-do lists. Mark your calendars: it'll be on soft-opening starting on December 26 and will be open from Wednesdays to Mondays for lunch and dinner service.
Joseph's is at the Laperal White House, 14 Leonard Wood Road, Barangay Cabinet Hill, Teachers Camp, Baguio City. For more information, visit Joseph's website.
From: SPOT.ph
