The Story of "The Princess Restaurant"
In the mid 50s a young married couple decided to come to Davao City to start their family. Mariano “Marianing” Solis (a native Davaoeño) and his young wife, Lourdes “Onding” Cura (from Tarlac) decided to settle in Davao City after finishing their post graduate studies in Washington DC, USA. Having been sent by Bishop Clovis Thibault PME as a scholar to take
postgraduate studies at the Catholic University of America in Washington DC, Marianing started working with the Prelature of Davao City upon his return. Onding, on the other hand, having been a professor at the University of Sto. Tomas (UST) before she left for the USA to pursue her Doctorate degree (PhD), decided to take up a teaching post at the Immaculate Conception College (ICC – now the University of the Immaculate Conception). Intent on starting a small home-based retail business, the couple brought back a lot of apparel and accessories for women from the USA when they relocated. On a side note – the Solis couple traveled home to Davao City by boat in the mid 50s and on the same boat with them was Marianing’s good friend and classmate, newly wed Elias B. Lopez and his young wife, Alma Concepcion (from Iloilo) – both couples were going to settle down in Davao City. In later years, Marianing would accede to the request of Mayor Elias B. Lopez and became Chief of Police of Davao City prior to Martial Law. To support the crime prevention drive of Marianing when he was Chief of Police, Onding put up a non-profit organization called the Welfare Action Foundation (We Act) whose most well-known project todate is the Davao Boystown in Maa, Davao City; Davao Boystown is still operational and is under the supervision of Don Bosco. Bringing the Kapampangan taste to Davao City
Onding started a home-based retail business from out of their home in Matina – well-to-do young ladies of Davao City would troop to their place to buy one-of-a-kind clothes, accessories and shoes (in those days it was in vogue for young ladies to go to church in colour-coordinated shoes, bags, veils and fans). When the volume of customers could no longer be accommodated in their house, Marianing decided to rent a small store space along Bolton St. from good friends Nanding and Didang (Reta) Bermejo – thus was born “The Princess Gift Shop.” Onding’s Kapampangan genes kicked in when she noted that there were no good barbecue place in Davao City in the early 60s. Thus, from being a small lifestyle boutique, “The Princess Gift Shop” morphed into “The Princess Restaurant.” With the restaurant requiring more attention, both Marianing and Onding decided to give up their respective jobs and focused on growing their new business. The Princess was the first 24-hour restaurant in Davao City and served signature Kapampangan dishes but it was really its pork barbecue that was the star. The must-order for anyone eating at The Princess was an order of Princess Pork Barbecue paired with its signature fried rice and a side of homemade atchara. So many other restaurants have come after The Princess but none have ever been able to replicate the unique taste and goodness of Princess barbecue! People who grew up in Davao City will remember The Princess as the restaurant that had a huge crown as its signage in the entrance and a glass encased grilling station in front of the restaurant so passers-by could see and smell the char-grilled goodness of barbecue as they walked by. Inside, the restaurant had varnished bamboo halves covering its walls and two small steel bridges traversed a lighted fishpond which was situated right in the middle of the restaurant. In an era before the advent of mp3 or live streamed music through Spotify, music at the restaurant came from a coin-operated jukebox where you had a choice of the latest Top 40 hits played from 45 rpm vinyl records. Abutting The Princess was another brainchild of Onding – a hip store called “ChiRoMaBo” which sold the latest psychedelic knickknacks, neon posters and stickers for the flower power generation. Ah, those were the days when life was so much simpler! The Princess was the go-to place for family Sunday lunches and for the best barbecue in town. A lot of Davaoeños who were in their teens in the 60s and 70s will remember The Princess as the place they would go to hangout with their “barkada” or to treat their special someone to a good dinner at reasonable prices. The Princess served the dining public of Davao City from 1960 until the early 1980s.
