Blackbird at the Nielson Tower, a hallmark of the Makati dining scene, opens its doors for diners once again to show what they do best.
Probably one of the most missed dining establishments in the Metro during the lockdown, Blackbird welcomes patrons back to their art deco halls with new dishes and cleaner interiors. Speaking with Executive Chef Colin Mackay, he talks about their restaurant’s experience over quarantine, how they were able to continue serving their delectable fare while supporting their employees.
“We opened for taking out and delivery from Blackbird a month into the lockdown.” Chef Colin says that Blackbird itself was the clear choice to keep in operations among their other restaurants. “We chose Blackbird over the other restaurants in the group as it has convenient public access that does not involve entering a mall and public car park.” Thus, easing logistics in maintaining take-out and delivery operations. An interesting detail on how they executed their delivery service over lockdown is that they chose to keep the delivery operations in-house as much as possible. “We offered delivery via an in-house team comprised of some of our employees to allow them to receive a salary whilst maintaining the quality of our product during delivery.” This assured the Blackbird team that their dishes retained quality over delivery while also maintaining the livelihood of employees. They were able to offer this curated courier service for deliveries to Makati and BGC.
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Of course, a restaurant’s true identity shines when it’s not just the food doing the talking but the complete dining experience. So, to guarantee that everything was right in reopening, Chef Colin shares that they took their time in planning for dine-in operations. “Once we received advice that we could open for dine-in patrons, we delayed our opening to completely overhaul the restaurant. Our air conditioning system was taken down, cleaned, and sanitized.” Colin continues that a majority of furniture and fixtures had to be changed or replaced to accommodate all the sanitation protocols they wanted to have in place.
Read the full story written by Ysmael Suarez in Lifestyle Asia November 2020 edition titled, “Rising Together.”
