Groundbreaking Filipino American restaurant Bad Saint closes its doors

Customers line up in the rain for a meal at Bad Saint.

Bad Saint ,the Washington DC restaurant that opened eyes to Filipino cuisine, closed its doors permanently, a victim of the pandemic economy. 

The Filipino American restaurant that drew national attention in 2019 served its last meal July 9.

“The attitude that I think we and a lot of people had in the beginning (of the pandemic) was ‘We’ve just got to make it to the other side of this,'” co-owner Genevieve Villamora told Eater. “At some point, probably in the last nine months, I was like, there’s no getting on the other side of this. This is it. This is the new reality.” 

At it's height, people would line up and wait up to three hours to get one of the 24 seats in the tiny restaurant.

The restaurant was an instant hit when it opened in 2015 under the direction of chef Tom Cunanan, who left the restaurant in 2020. 

Serving the cuisine of the Philippines, the Bad Saint (named after Saint Malo, the first Asian American community in the US) gained national attention by ranking No. 2 best new restaurant in America by Bon Appetit in 2016 and earning Cunanan a James Beard award for best chef in the Mid-Atlantic in 2019. Despite Cunanan's departure,  the restaurant was able to maintain it's high standards.

Bad Saint's culinary success lent a new air of credibility to the long-neglected food from the Philippines. While adventurous diners flocked to restaurants of numerically smaller Asian American communities like the Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese and Malaysian, Filipino restaurants failed to depend on the loyalty of Filipino clientele.

Since Bad Saint's breakthrough, other restaurants have opened up offering high-end versions of Filipino dishes. The Chicago restaurant, Kasama, became the first Filipino American restaurant to earn the coveted Michelin star this year. Chicago Tribune critic Louisa Chu proclaimed Kasama, owned by Tim Flores and Genie Kwon, one of the best restaurants in the world.

On the other end of the dining spectrum, food trucks offering Filipino fare, offering meats in familiar taco and burrito forms have helped introduce the cuisine to more casual foodie fans.

The tight quarters of Bad Saint worked against the restaurant during the pandemic which required social-distance dining. Other business strategies: patio dining and takeout, didn't produce enough profit to save the restaurant.

The pandemic hurt Villamora physically, as well. She came down with COVID-19 during this critical time.

“All of the pressure and anxiety of the restaurant trying to survive in this environment really ratcheted everything up a few notches for me,” Villamora told Eater “It was only a few months ago that I was honest with myself about how much I was struggling and how much I really needed help and finally got that for myself… It’s challenging but we have to find ways to take care of ourselves and take care of other people.”

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