I can’t count the friends and family members I’ve taken to Bellini’s restaurant through the years, not just to partake of authentic Italian food but to meet Mr. Bellini himself. Actually, he was the main reason. 

There are restaurants with character, and then there is Bellini’s, a resto with both character and an owner who was a character. And best of all, Mr. Bellini was almost always around, a restaurateur with an old-school notion of that role as not just proprietor but the center of a social universe. 

In mid afternoon after the lunchtime crowd, I’d sometimes come in with a balikbayan relative and Mr. Bellini would be in the back room napping. Soon he’d find out there’s a new diner and emerge newly rested and ready to entertain with his Italian exuberance and paparazzi stories. 

He had a long and storied career in Italy as a photojournalist, but the kind who stalked celebrities, and often intruded into their space. I presume the Italians were in a league of their own since paparazzi itself, as you probably know, is an Italian word.

Walls in his restaurant were full of framed clippings of his work, with photos of some of the biggest stars in the 1960s and 70s. I’ll resist the temptation of listing the stars here just to impress you. Just check out his restaurant, hopefully still able to operate. Mr. Bellini died on November 24. He was 84. 

In the mid 1980s he found himself in the Philippines along with a horde of international media covering the biggest story of that time, the pro-democracy movement that eventually ousted a dictator in dramatic fashion in 1986. 

Unlike other journalists who parachuted to the next big story in other countries, Roberto Bellini stayed, having fallen in love with the Philippines and with one of its citizens, Maria Luisa Junsay, whom he met in the press office of Malacañang. They started a small restaurant in what was then the Marikina Shoe Expo in Cubao. He filled the restaurant with garish murals and large, campy models of landmarks like the leaning tower of Pisa, the medieval city where he was born. 

One magazine writer called his food “not spectacular but earnest.” I actually liked the food but perhaps the gaudy interior and Mr. Bellini’s attentive personality overshadowed the cuisine. Besides this was one Italian restaurant started not by a professional chef but by a paparazzo. 

And the food was earnest all right, the fresh ingredients often purchased by Mr. Bellini himself on daily early morning runs to nearby Farmer’s Market, as he would tell his customers. 

Word would get out about an authentic Italian restaurant run by a colorful Italian, which drew a diverse clientele that included yuppies, bohemians and foodie celebrities. I never saw Mr. Bellini with a camera there, so I think his customers never feared appearing in some showbiz magazine. He had given up that line of work long ago. In fact, its location at the end of opposite lines of shops offered it a modicum of privacy in the hurly burly of Cubao. The late former President Noynoy Aquino brought a date there at least once, with a server pointing out to me PNoy’s cozy corner table away from the main dining room. Oh the servers — the longest serving ones could speak some conversational Italian, taught by Mr. Bellini to add another layer of authenticity.

His idiosyncratic restaurant became a magnet for other independent businesses which took over the spaces of shoe stores driven out of business by the nearby malls. The Marikina Shoe Expo years ago evolved into Cubao X, a trendy potpourri of cafes and galleries; shops selling antiques, skateboards, and vinyl; and even a little club that catered to spoken word artists. The mainstay and anchor was the cultural institution, Bellini’s, that begot another, Cubao X. 

As malls multiplied and threatened un-corporate, non-chained restaurants in the neighborhood, Bellini’s survived and thrived, and even helped create a hub of likeminded entrepreneurs. Mr. Bellini always worked hard at it, showering regular customers with his time and an occasional panna cotta on the house. 

That part of him was charming but not the reason I’d bring balikbayans there. While many of my own relatives and friends chose to leave the Philippines, here was a talented, charismatic man who chose to live here. He had to be part of their Philippine experience. 

A journalist who came to cover people power in the 1980s, Mr. Bellini was a living, endearing reminder that our country once captivated the world.

Veteran Kapuso journalist H. Severino writes occasional reflections for this website under a column entitled, “Essay.” In 2023, he was given the Gawad Balagtas, a lifetime literary achievement award given to Filipino writers by the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL), the country's largest organization of Filipino writers.