Polilya Reopens its Doors in Poblacion This August 2022

Polilya, one of Poblacion’s most popular bars until its closure in 2020, reopens its doors this weekend at an all-new location

Over the last few years, we’ve witnessed many of our favourite outposts fall victim to the COVID-19 pandemic. The nightlife industry especially took a toll, and many of the metro’s most popular destinations were forced to shut their doors. One such establishment was Polilya, the youthful, neon-lit bar on the corner of Poblacion’s Don Pedro and Jacobo, whose untimely closure inspired an outpour of heartfelt posts and comments online.

“Polilya is closing its doors,” the establishment announced in an Instagram post, halfway through 2020. “Throughout this time, you, our loyal customers, have become a part of the Polilya family.” It continued, “The near future is uncertain, but we hope to see you again somewhere down the road”.

Tomorrow, the 26th of August, the beloved Poblacion favourite makes good on its word—Polilya is back in action, with new dishes, creative cocktails, and a handful of familiar faces geared up to ask you, “Have you figured out what you want yet?”

Above Dark Wing co-founder Ian Paradies, head of operations and culinary cevelopment Luis de Terry, and Dark Wing bar head Jeric “Esse” Magsino

Now situated just a hop away from the original address, the new Polilya is located at 5767 Ebro St, on the south side of Kalayaan. Trading shades of purple and tropical touches for vibrant yellow and eccentric accents, the interiors are noticeably different—but look closely, and you’ll spot endless details from the Polilya we know and love.

“We didn’t buy a single piece of furniture for the new space,” shares Ian Paradies, one of Polliya’s owners. “We reused everything from the old Polilya, just retouched and repainted a lot of it.” Some standouts from the menu have carried over too, including their Hainanese chicken nuggets, and the Tipsy Paradies, their signature shots with Vuqo vodka, pandan, lime juice, and Cava. However, the fresh additions are not to be missed, either.

Read more about what to expect from the new Polilya, below:

Why did you want to do a total re-design for the look of Polilya?

It wasn’t that we wanted to do a total re-design necessarily. Instead, our idea was to make sure the design and feel of the new space fit the area of Poblacion we were now in. One of our core beliefs as [Dark Wing, the mother company behind Polilya] is that we want to make sure we fit into the neighbourhoods we select rather than force neighbourhoods to adapt to us. We are very careful about the locations we select as we need to love the neighbourhood, and we sure love Poblacion. It was our original home, so we felt that Polilya’s new location had to be there as well.

Above Photo: Lauren Golangco

What’s different with this Polilya and what about the original Polilya did you choose to retain?

The side of Poblacion Polilya is currently in is gritter than our original location. The first Polilya was very Filipino tropical and refined. We wanted our new space to be more industrial and rough around the edges; you really get that sense when you walk in. When I first started going to Poblacion, all my favourite spots were located in what they now call SoKal (south of Kalayaan): Handlebar, Beers Paradise, H&J, La Tienda, Filling Station, etc. And that is also where most of the red light district was located. The area was grittier and grungier, which we felt gave it a lot of character. We wanted to make sure we captured that personality with our new look and feel.

However, we also wanted to make sure our core customers got a sense of what they loved about the original Polilya in our new space. What is crazy is that we didn’t buy a single piece of furniture for the new space. We reused everything from the old Polilya, just retouched and repainted a lot of it. We also brought back the “Have you figured out what you want yet?” sign but in mural form, still have a lot of neon (including a new ? sign that is representative of the old bar sign), the bottle chandelier, fun bathroom signage. There is a lot of the old Polilya we incorporated into the new as that was important to us…part of our identity as an F&B group. I think what is most important to carry over from the original Polilya, though, is the experience we try to provide to our customers. We still want them to feel like they are at home and part of the Dark Wing family, and even push ourselves to further improve that experience for them.

Above The señor sisig, a crispy yet chewy iteration on the classic with pork jowl and spicy chorizo (Photo: Lauren Golangco)

Above One of the new must-try dishes from the menu: the Szechuan-style pansit lamig (Photo: Lauren Golangco)

Tell us about the menu and signature cocktails. Which items do you love?

We transformed our menu quite heavily in order to fit that vibe. From a food perspective, we thought it would be nice to try and elevate Filipino street food classics with our own interpretations. “Kanto cool” in a way. We are a bar at the end of the day, so we felt the food we serve should be easy to eat while drinking. We have a lot of skewers and our take on Pinoy classics like sisig, barbecue, kare-kare, wings, and noodles. And our cocktails are the same. Of our food items, we only maintained three from our original menu, while I’d say half are new for the drinks. Many of the new cocktails now include local ingredients like ube in the Boozy Barney and guava in our take on the mule, the Guavavoom. The kitchen and bar are headed up by the talented Luis de Terry and Esse Magsino, respectively.

Above The Boozy Barney with ube cream, vodka, pandan syrup, and lemon juice

Above The Guavavoom, a fruity and tangy blend of vodka, guava, lime juice, ginger beer, fresh mint, and a double IPA

What made you decide that this was the right time to re-launch?

I think what drove us to explore reopening Polilya and expanding Dark Wing was our first experience travelling to the US when travel restrictions were first lifted since the pandemic started. The excitement people had to be able to go out again and socialise with family and friends got us excited about the opportunity. We believed the Philippines would experience the exact same thing, especially since we had been locked down for two years, and luckily we were right. It is incredible to see restaurants and bars full of customers again. I actually need to make reservations in advance now to many of my favourite spots. And Poblacion is thriving again…I’d even say it’s not far from how it was pre-pandemic.

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Polilya Reopens its Doors at a New Poblacion Address—Here’s What to Expect