A pre-pandemic night in OTO with international DJs.
Image — Marvin Conanan
If I were watching a gripping dystopian movie, the post-apocalyptic scenes would end after a 2-hour run time. The credits would roll, the cinema lights would flick open, I would mindlessly brush off the popcorn crumbs, and snap back to a cozier reality. As I write this though, real life is stranger than fiction. We’re more than 3 months of community quarantine run time with the world screeching to a terrifying halt and the word ‘pandemic’ on loop. We are living in strange times and the implications have seen a serious domino effect that extend beyond health concerns. All industries are faced with difficult decisions and forced to adapt at a maddening pace. One such industry whose business model took a beating is the food & beverage scene.
All over the globe, the invisible enemy we’ve been fighting hasn’t spared the best gems of the food world. For instance, three-star Michelin restaurant, Alinea, was once known for their theatrics. I used to watch the spectacle unfold in Netflix, where sugar balloons would be served alongside food-splattered canvases. Now, molecular gastronomy is but a far-off dream. The numbers also forecast a significant number of restaurants closing shop for good this year. Renowned farm-to-table chef Dan Barber had this to say, “We will not be returning to normal even when we’re allowed to.”
It’s hard to think about a future where cafes are no longer part of our morning routine, where good conversations over a spread of good food inside our favorite diners become a rare occasion, and where celebratory Friday nights that have us raising our glasses for a good time is a blurred line.
It’s surreal how the streets of the usually packed Poblacion looks like a ghost town now. OTO, which ranked 47th on Asia’s Best 50 Bars in 2019, is temporarily closed after just relocating and opening their new home late last year. Tetsuo launched its 2.0 branch in the same neighborhood last February to the joy of many fried chicken fans, only to make do with takeout orders in the current situation.
Over at Legaspi Village, coffee aficionados have lost a safe space to gather, with Yardstick only offering caffeine to-go to follow the ECQ mandate. “For the past couple of months, Yardstick has only been operating with a skeletal workforce in our HQ to ensure staff safety while the others work from home. While we have been greatly affected by this pandemic, we are also using this downtime to review and adjust our business model,” said Kevin Tang, the cafe’s co-owner. Tetsuo founder, Sean Bautista, echoes the same sentiment and attests to food and beverage businesses operating on uncertainties and low margin models. Because of the pandemic, having a full house eatery could very well be a thing of the past.
Right now, there is a race against time to remain relevant. For OTO’s part, the innovation lies in staying connected with their patrons via Cocktails and Chismis live sessions, alongside some tutorials on Instagram. “We’re trying to see how we can stay relevant to people even if we aren’t operational right now. And us being active online, not only is that sort of a way for people to see that OTO’s still alive, but it also keeps the team busy,” said Head Bartender, David Abalayan.
Over at Yardstick, having an active online presence is also a strategy the cafe employs. A look at their Instagram account is proof of this with their brewing guides and recipes readily available through “Turo Tuesdays” and their online version of “Let’s Coffee.” Several efforts have also come into place with the multiple pick-up locations they’ve arranged for their freshly roasted specialty coffees across Metro Manila. Likewise, their ready-to-drink cold brew options have increased bulk production, with their Nespresso-compatible specialty coffee capsules to be relaunched for convenient third wave coffee solutions.
On the other hand, it seems like the upward trend is also to boost morale with creative content. For instance, the Tetsuo team has recently partnered with transit records to reflect the music experience they have in their stores. An interview series is also in the works to feature real life stories from their restaurant regulars and scenes from their quarantine life.
Foot traffic as the food and beverage industry knows it will be drastically changed from here on out. “We can’t definitively say what’s to come but we’re gearing up for a takeout focused approach. We’re also introducing bundles for groups and families. We’ve noticed that households have been ordering together and we want to create packages to best fit that consumer shift. We believe that our customers will side with caution during the forthcoming months. That being said, we’re going to tailor fit our menu to accommodate a Tetsuo at home experience,” said Sean.
On the other side of Poblacion, OTO’s renowned cocktails and even their cookies would have to wait. Bringing the bar’s experience to their patron’s homes would have to suffice as their immediate next step. Currently, a short list of their take out menu is well underway. Yardstick is also keen on doing the same move, while also transitioning to a cashless and contact-less system, improving internal operations to emphasize safety and hygiene, and maintaining social distancing guidelines once dine-in is allowed again.
Indeed, this is uncharted territory for the restaurant industry. How will dining in groups be from now on? What about overhead expenses? What will become of the overall landscape of dine-in? And these are just a few snapshots of questions in hindsight. While we don’t have all the answers with the next coming months of adjustments as a game of wait-and-see, this pandemic could also show a silver lining on changing the way we dine. Maybe this is a beckoning for the F&B scene to arise to new heights and perhaps, define a new decade of food. Could it be that we’ve been in the same situation before? And yet, we’ve survived. We’ve thrived. We might not know how just yet, and we are merely taking it one day at a time. As with anything, we’ll get there. Slowly but surely, we’ll get there
