‘Live’ cooking at Virgile’s

It used to be called Passadena Murugo. The popular bar and nightclub in Gikondo is now known as Moon Pub, although revelers still prefer to call it kwa Virgile, after the owner’s name. Last month, the bar marked ten years in business, and what better way to celebrate the occasion than with a new theme for food lovers. Dubbed “live cooking”, with the owner taking to the kitchen to prepare patron’s orders of a dish called galette that closely resembles a chapatti, or even the Ethiopian dish, Injera. Like chapatti, the recipe is stir-fried on a hot pan, and when ready, can be accompanied with beef, chicken, pork, mushroom sauce, eggs, and cheese. A special mini-kitchen with a counter has been put up for the live cooking, which happens every evening. All that one has to do is walk up to the counter, place an order and within three minutes food is ready. This arrangement caters to those who want to see their food as it’s prepared, and those with a weakness for fancy food. Whenever there are theme nights like the Salsa nights on Thursdays, some patrons just walk from the dance floor, order and resume their dance as they wait for the food. “When you go to bars, the first thing you notice is that all of them have counters, but for drinks only. But a bar is not a place for just drinks. A bar is also about food, music. So I thought we have to do the same and create a separate counter for eating. You come to the counter, see what you want, order for it, and get it in three minutes. Galette goes for Rwf 1,500. However, the portions are not large, so don’t go there thinking it will serve the same purpose as the buffet. Galette is popular pub grub in France, where Virgile got his training in cooking.