Legaspi

Everardo Legaspi, deputy director for Kings County public health department, did not provide the exact number of human cases it has reported to the state, except to tell The Times it is aware of “less than 10.”

The veteran bartender recruited a team of local culinary all-stars to help out in the kitchen: Jonnah Ayala, the former chef de cuisine at Musang, and Justin Legaspi of Renee Erickson’s Boat Bar.

Legaspi was first brought to Oriental Mart by fellow Filipino chef Irbille Donia more than 13 years ago.

While in culinary school at The Art Institute of Seattle, Legaspi would walk by the store’s sign every morning at 7:30 a.m. on his way to class, but he didn’t think much about stopping in.

Ahead of Oriental Mart’s 50th anniversary, three local Filipino American chefs and restaurateurs — Aaron Verzosa and Amber Manuguid of Archipelago and Justin Legaspi of Boat Bar and the newly opened Family Friend — met for lunch to toast 50 years of O Mart.