Hiraya and its sister restaurant Kayu will close after June 30 due to differences between chef Paolo Dungca and co-owners Juan and Jeremy Canlas. While Dungca aims to focus on authentic Filipino cuisine, the Canlases sought to diversify offerings by incorporating burgers. Despite the split, there are no hard feelings. Dungca plans to introduce a revamped Kayu at 1633 17th Street with a streamlined menu that includes creative, vegetable-based Filipino dishes while maintaining an inviting atmosphere resembling a home.
Although the brand and the concept was great, everything looked great on the surface level, we were having difficulty making ends meet with the current situation with our economy and situation in DC.
I had a vision of how we should tell our stories through Filipino food, and I think they had their own visions of how they wanted to do restaurants, which is understandably fine.
It's nothing personal, obviously. We're still in a good relationship, still friends.
It would still kind of be reminiscent of what a house should be.
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