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About the Space:

Gugu Room is a Filipino-Japanese izakaya  located in the Lower East Side, New York, combining the flavors of traditional Japanese and Filipino cuisine. Soon to be known for their contemporary Japanese cocktails with a Filipino twist, delectable yakitori and clever entrées.

Our Inspiration

Gugu \ ˈgü(ˌ)gü

Urban slang that means your object of affection.

Gugu Room is inspired by Jose Rizal’s 2-month romance with O-Sei San, a samurai’s daughter, during his quick stint in Tokyo before heading to Manhattan in 1888. The space exudes a romantic, mysterious and uninhibited feeling such as their short lived love affair.

“Japan has enchanted me. The beautiful scenery, the flowers, the trees, and the inhabitants – so peaceful, so courteous, and so pleasant. O-Sei-San, Sayonara, Sayonara! I have spent a happy golden month; I do not know if I can have another one like that in all my life. Love, money, friendship, appreciation, honors –these have not been wanting. To think that I am leaving this life for the uncertain, the unknown. There I was offered an easy way to live, beloved and esteemed…”

“To you I dedicate the final chapter of these memoirs of my youth. No woman, like you has ever loved me. No woman, like you has ever sacrificed for me. Like the flower of the chodji that falls from the stem fresh and whole without falling leaves or without withering –with poetry still despite its fall – thus you fell. Neither have you lost your purity nor have the delicate petals of your innocence faded – Sayonara, Sayonara!”

-J.P. Rizal