Have a drink: Un Café, S’il Vous Plaît; Franco 75; Sangre de Franco
The team behind Franco: Toogy Clavecilla, Miko Calo, RJ Galang, Laveena Clavecilla
One night in Poblacion, cousins RJ Galang and Chef Miko Calo were having tacos. “RJ asked me, ‘What if the top chefs of Manila made a taco? What do you think they’d be doing?’ Then he asked, ‘What if you made a taco?’” says Calo.
After perusing the idea further with Galang, who is part of the group behind Taqueria Franco restaurant along with Toogy and Laveena Clavecilla, Calo decided Taqueria Franco would be French-leaning. She says she initially thought of making “beef bourguignon tacos, but make it a birria. Hence, the Lamb Bourguignon Birria is on the menu. I personally love quesadilla. RJ kind of just went with it and created this whole thing.”
Why is it called Franco? “The smart answer is that if you attach the word Franco to anything, it becomes French, meaning a Francophile. The dumb answer is ‘French taco: Franco,’” explains Galang.
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- Sautéed mushrooms taco
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- Lamb Bourguignon birria
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- Steak frites taco
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- Prawns taco
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- ‘Poulet roti’ taco
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- Breaded oysters taco
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- ‘Foie gras’ taco
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- Duck confit
The restaurant, which has been open barely five months, has eight taco dishes and six tostadas and quesadillas, including foie gras tacos, steak frites tacos, duck confit tacos, and cordon bleu and raclette and bacon quesadillas. “The only thing we borrowed from a Mexican taqueria is the idea of the tortilla. But even that, we bastardize. It’s galette-style instead of just plain flour or masala,” says Calo.
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- Le Bon Junk
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- Raclette and bacon quesadilla
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- Octopus ‘tostada’
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- Egg salad and caviar ‘tostada’
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- Eggs Benedict ‘tostada’
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- Creamed spinach quesadilla
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- Cordon bleu quesadilla
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- Hot chocolate tart
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- Horchata bread pudding
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- Corn flan with mimolette
She shares a story of her time in France, walking around with some chef friends trying to decide what to eat. “I saw this old French man with a big belly making galettes. So I ordered the jambon, just a normal ham and cheese galette, in very broken French.” He asked if she was a tourist. “I said, ‘No, I’m moving here to go to school; it’s my first day.’” The old man gave her the ham galette for free, along with a blessing. “That’s a core memory for me.”
The flavors in Taqueria Franco, says Calo, “tend to surprise some people because it’s not Mexican. I don’t want to bastardize anything that’s holy. So, the food here resembles something like a ‘pasta dish with Asian flavors.’ There’s Tajin fries, French fries that we toss in tahini and salt. Then you have your regular French fries, which come with a rouille, which is like garlic mayo. And then there’s our signature sharing item, Le Bon Junk. If you’re familiar with Le Bon Funk in Singapore, that’s our ode to them. So it’s ‘the good junk,’ which is Granny Goose Tortillos, which we layer with beef with garlic bechamel.”
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- Tarte tatin
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- Lucky pêche
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- Franco 75
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- Un café, s’il vous plaît
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- Tequita
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- Sangre de franco
The menu includes 10 signature cocktails, including the Franco 75, made of tequila, honey, lemon, truffle and prosecco, and the The Fig & The Goat, made of gin, goat cheese, dry vermouth, and fig.
While Taqueria Franco shows Calo’s more playful side, at Metronome, her serious side is more evident. Calo concludes, “Taqueria Franco is like anything I put out. I just want people to enjoy it and nothing else. I want people to have a lot of fun so that they keep on coming back. Because it’s not only always about the food, but it’s always about the experience.”
Taqueria Franco is at LPL Center (back entrance), 130 L.P. Leviste Street, Salcedo Village, Makati City, Philippines. https://www.taqueriafranco.com. Call cellphone no. (+63 945) 788-6224. Email contactus.franco@gmail.com.
