Welcome back to another one of my articles BizWeek. This week I interviewed the owner of the restaurant Corner Q. Corner Q is located in 8170 Silver brook road.
Jiya: How long have you owned Corner Q?
Ms. Mary: We opened in 2016. About four years and a few months.
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Jiya: Is it family owned it?
Ms. Mary: Yes it is family owned.
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Jiya: What was your inspiration to open Corner Q?
Ms. Mary: My family loved to cook and I came up with the menus. My mom and I came up with the concept. Our love for the cuisine, but I was also inspired by the Puerto Rican and Columbian cuisine. That’s why there are some Latin dishes in our restaurant. Since there was a hotel near us we were just like okay let’s do some burgers and fries, that kind of stuff. Something for everyone, but just really highlight the Filipino cuisine. It depends on which part of Philippines you’re from. Common dishes like Adobo is the national dish of the Philippines. Depending on where you’re from, it’s cooked a certain way. Some areas might add there own twist to it. Like how my grandma would make the Adobo.
Jiya: What part of Philippines is your grandma from?
Ms. Mary: Both parts of my family are from the northern islands. My moms from Bulacan and my dads from Laguna. Some of are dishes have the name Tagalog on it. There’s 7100+ islands on the Philippines.
Jiya: What are the most popular foods in Corner Q?
Ms. Mary: The chicken adobo, the skewers are either pork or chicken. We do egg roles which are made with ground chicken or ground pork, here we do ground turkey. What’s also very popular is Halo-halo it’s a dessert. It’s like shaved ice with milk, and flan. Crispy Patna which is a deep fried pork. We serve Lumpia veggie, it’s what you’d find close to veggie egg roll. The cuisine is highly influenced by the Chinese and Spanish flavors and ingredients.
Jiya: Why Spanish flavors?
Ms. Mary: The islands were ruled by Spain for 100s of years, so there’s that Spanish influence with the cuisine and culture. The flavors are not the same, but the ingredients and style are a good mix.
Jiya: How is corona virus affecting your employees and you?
Ms. Mary: We’ve been blessed to not go out of business and we’re staying healthy. We are trying to follow the guidelines the governor has given, as far as dine in is concerned and we try to clean the best we can. We had to change our hours due to the business flow.
Jiya: How long are you open during the day? I’ve seen your schedule I’m pretty sure your hours have changed.
Ms. Mary: We’ve closed Monday’s, its like a day of rest. Sundays are open 11am-3pm. Tuesdays and Friday were open 4-7:30. Saturday’s 7:30.
Jiya: Did you make your own recipes?
Ms. Mary: Yes we made our own recipes. They were from my grandma and we changed it a little. It’s a combination of our food. A lot of it is family recipes and then the other part is common foods.
Jiya: I don’t blame you. Nobody can have their restaurant’s recipes completely made by the family.
Jiya: What would you say to other restaurants during this time?
Ms. Mary: I would say I hope that there is a way for us to operate through this, but I know we will make it. Continue to stay in business, stay healthy, and be safe.
Corner Q is an amazing restaurant and is a great place to go. For the readers of this article I hope your hungry. This interview was done due to popular demand by the patrons of Corner Q.