Skip to main content

Van Gogh is Bipolar: Chase away depression simply by visiting this restaurant


There's a quaint little restaurant in Quezon City that serves quirky and delectable dishes that make you happy (or at least improve your mood) when you feel down. Van Gogh is Bipolar is Jetro Rafael's house slash resto at Maginhawa Street in Sikatuna Village. Just like the iconic Dutch artist, Jetro has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, so he built a place where people can dine on delicious meals that trigger happy hormones in the body.

"It's healing me," Jetro told Rappler. "So it's my best way to share whatever gift and experience I've had in this place." On the menu he has included salmon, honey, turkey, cabbage, nuts and tea to name a few ingredients, which are thought to have mood-boosting properties. He's also named dishes after temperamental historical figures and celebrities. There's a Courtney Love's Potion, intended to reduce anxiety, and Virginia Woolf's Tears, aimed at staving off depression.

I haven't been to Kyusi in months. I should go before the year ends.






Opening hours are irregular, so call ahead. You can also follow Van Gogh is Bipolar on Facebook to keep up to date with all the latest promos and happenings. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Gilbert Legrand turns mundane stuff into delightful characters

Gilbert Legrand doesn't see the world like the rest of us. You see a scrubbing brush, he sees an Apache chief. You see a a pair of scissors, he sees smooching lovers. The French artist's imagination is so wild and unrestricted that he can turn the most ordinary objects into unexpected sources of delight. I just spent half an hour lurking on his website, and you should, too.

The Salimbaa

Here's a strange tribal instrument I never heard of before now. Originally from the Tinananon tribe of southern Philippines, the bowl-shaped Salimbaa is made of metal and wood, has 30 bronze wound strings, and is played using two small sticks.  Caleb Byerly, who makes lost/extinct musical tools in his North Carolina workshop, has an interesting story on how he made his first Salimbaa. WATCH: More details about Caleb and his craft over at  Our State .

Italy's True Movie Poster King

What you see here is the hand-crafted magic of Renato Casaro, the late Italian designer who practically defined an era of cinematic cool. His work wasn't just advertising; it was art. Casaro's journey into becoming one of the most recognizable poster artists wasn't by chance; it was a pure obsession. As a kid, he was fascinated by billboards, trying to mimic the styles of Norman Rockwell and Angelo Cesselon. Think of a teen so determined that he was drawing right onto the walls of a local cinema just to snag a few free tickets. Casaro created posters for a lot of Spaghetti Westerns. His big break came with A Fistful of Dollars in 1964. The movie starred Clint Eastwood and was directed by Sergio Leone. The poster didn’t just promote the film; it helped make it a global hit. Naturally, Leone came calling again, commissioning posters for My Name Is Nobody (1973) and the epic crime saga, Once Upon a Time in America (1984). A Casaro poster is easy to spot because of his uniqu...