MANILA, Philippines – Roberto Bellini, the founder of the iconic Bellini’s Italian restaurant in Cubao Expo, has died, his daughter Jasmine confirmed to Rappler on Monday, November 25.
Roberto, born in Pisa to hotelier parents, according to an Esquire profile in June 2015, founded Bellini’s in July 1999 with Filipina wife Maria Luisa.
Friendly but straightforward, down-to-earth, and gifted with a sense of humor and irony, Roberto turned many diners into friends, as he spent time with them talking about the Philippines and Italy, art and food, and his beloved universe that was Cubao. As he was a photographer before moving to the Philippines, some of Roberto’s early and most valued customers were Filipino photojournalists.
Bellini’s has become a fixture in the Expo — a place that, with its authentic Italian home-style cooking, would eventually “attract a loyal clientele of big businessmen, showbiz A-listers, even the president of the Philippines,” the magazine wrote.
Among the most famous is actor John Lloyd Cruz — whose equally iconic romcom with Bea Alonzo, One More Chance, chose Bellini’s as the movie barkada’s go-to restaurant — who had maintained a friendship with Roberto.
SPOT wrote earlier in January 2024 that Cruz credited Roberto for his motivation to continue working. Cruz, in a post greeting Roberto on his birthday, said, “siya lang marahil ang napili kong pakinggan at tunay na nagpaunawa ng halaga ng mayroon kang ginagawa.” (He’s perhaps the only one I’ve chosen to listen to, and the one to help me understand the value of what I do.)
Cruz began his greeting: “Di ako huminto sa pagdalaw sa lugar kung saan pinanganak si Popoy” — referring to the movie character. (I haven’t stopped visiting the place where Popoy was born.)
As for which Philippine president? Writer Jessica Zafra wrote in 2014: “Mr. Bellini says one of their regular diners is the President of the Philippines, and P-Noy’s favorite dishes are spaghetti bolognese, Parma ham and arugula pizza, and scallopine marsala.”
Roberto, in the Esquire write-up, is known to be feisty, and a hard worker who takes no days off not because of greed, but because he “likes to work.”
Sevillano Aquino, the person who transformed Marikina Shoe Expo into Cubao Expo in 2007, also told Esquire that he owes much to Bellini’s in reforming the place, which would become much more hip in the years to come.
Aquino said that Bellini’s quality of service set the bar for the other would-be commercial tenants of the place.
Philstar also wrote in 2010, the restaurant “captured the hearts of food-loving Manileños with its delectable yet relatively affordable pizza and pasta fare.”
Road to success
Roberto told Esquire of the sacrifices the family took for the restaurant to succeed, noting how the couple and the three kids had had to sleep in the restaurant’s office for five years, instead of making the trip to their Montalban home.
Later, the restaurant would be featured in a Julius Babao show, and in a column by food critic Doreen Fernandez — and then later, the aforementioned One More Chance appearance — which would pave the way for their success.
Roberto was a paparazzi photographer in Italy for 30 years, before moving to the Philippines in 1999.
He had been to the Philippines before. In 1986, he was tasked to cover the EDSA People Power Revolution, wherein he would also meet his second wife, Maria Luisa Junsay, at Malacañang, where she was working at the press office, according to Philstar.
Roberto and Maria Luisa have three children, Joy, Jasmine, and Junior. He had a first wife who was also a Filipina who died of brain cancer in 1984 in Pisa, with whom he has an offspring as well, Daniele. – Rappler.com