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Opening Soon: Taupe Dining's Rockwell Location + More New Spots From the Resto Group Behind Them
Here's the scoop on upcoming restaurants from the Forefront Fine Dining Group.
Published on Jul 16, 2025
(SPOT.ph) It wasn’t too long ago that Taupe Dining debuted their Elements tasting menu—arguably their most standout as well, being as much a display of techniques as it was of the team’s way of playing around with flavors. Since opening in 2024, the BGC restaurant has made it to countless best-of lists (our own 50 Great Restaurants included!), with their Balmori pop-up late last year helping cement their status as one of the best fine-dining ventures in the city today. Behind Taupe Dining is the Forefront Fine Dining Group, and they’ve got more surprises up their sleeves with new restaurants set to open this year and next.
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Seabass (with Nueva Ecija onion soubise, salmon roe, caviar, and lychee) and Codfish (amped up with grapes and kamias salsa), taken at Taupe's Rockwell pop-up last year. Photo by Patricia Baes, used for illustrative purposes only..
What's to come from the Forefront Fine Dining Group in 2025 and 2026
The group has two restaurants set to debut around Q4 this year, beginning with Alon, a fine-dining concept to open at The Shoppes at Ayala Triangle Gardens, Makati. They'll be serving à la carte plates centered around seafood—a “growing trend,” according to Francis Tolentino (the Forefront Group's CEO and Executive Chef, and the wizard behind Taupe's enthralling plates). “So imagine if you're a foreigner coming to the Philippines, the first thing you look for would be seafood.” The group is partnering with EC Studio Manila for the interior design, and decking the place with furniture by Cebu-based designer Vito Selma.
Also to come from the group come Q4 is Union, described by Forefront’s Chief Relations Officer and Head of Video Content Michael Carandang as a "high-end, high-energy" dining concept that'll "showcase the fusion of Filipino and New York menu creativity." The restaurant is set to open along Bonifacio High Street.
New Horizons for Taupe
The Forefront Fine Dining Group has also been offered a permanent space in Rockwell—an opportunity they’re taking to open a second outpost of Taupe Dining, slated for 2026. While Taupe BGC will still be serving their tasting menu, Taupe Rockwell will focus on a la carte offerings, Carandang tells us.
The Taupe pop-up in Rockwell’s Balmori Suites in 2024 was a huge success, they recall—the clamor for them was so strong that they were given the chance to extend their stay to 13 weeks (from the original six). They worked extra hard at it, hiring a whole new kitchen team exclusively for the pop-up while regular operations in BGC continued. Safe to say this paid off.
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Forefront's Michael Carandang (Chief Relations Officer and Head of Video Content), Rambo Nuñez (Chief Marketing Officer), Francis Flores (Executive Chairman), and Francis Tolentino (CEO and Executive Chef). Photo from Instagram/forefrontlifestyle.
The Forefront Fine Dining Group is the fine-dining focused sibling of the Forefront Lifestyle Group, who brought us bars like Almacen and Loft.
UPDATED (July 16, 2025, 4:27 p.m.): the specific location of the soon-to-open Taupe Rockwell has been omitted upon request.
For Trish, food is as much a source of pleasure and fuel as it is an outlet for creativity; a medium by which stories can be passed on; and a way to connect with others.
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