We are now on the second part of this short series on novel businesses which we started last week. Indeed, it is amazing how many business ideas and opportunities abound, and if you are creative and imaginative, you won’t need a large sum of money for capital and initial operating expenses.
Don’t look now, but the idea of book cafes is now picking up in the metro. I don’t really know who pioneered it here, but book cafes have been thriving in Europe and in the United States, and in spite of e-books, it is surprising how many people still prefer flipping the pages of an actual book. I guess it’s the same as newspapers – the thought of scanning pages and pages of the ubiquitous newspaper in the morning, coffee mug on hand, will never really be a thing of the past.
One of these book cafes we came across in our TV show, Business & Leisure (Solar Sports Channel 70, 10 o’clock, Wednesday evenings) is Tweedle Book Café. The choice of name tells a lot about the owner Jamie Perez-Ong who started this café with her husband. It comes from Alice in Wonderland, and Jamie’s fascination with children’s books spills over to her new-found business.
Actually, Tweedle Book Café, though a wonderful haven for book lovers, is not much known for its coffee because Jamie herself is personally very fond of hot chocolate. So here you have a virtual library and a chocolate shoppe, a not so common combination, but the book café thrives well after just a year of operation. It has two levels, one a basement for quiet reading and wining; it offers al fresco reading and dining, and the gratifying choices have made many of her customers regulars in the café. I noted a communal table where strangers read side by side with other book lovers, and end up enjoying long discussions over hot food which can be as light as their pork asado pies, or as filling as their salmon with pork floss.
Jamie has over a thousand titles here, but what is heart -warming is that many of her regulars have started donating books, now numbering over 400. For now, though, they have not decided if they will go into renting out their books which, Jamie says, entails more careful planning.
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Another interesting book Café is Book and Borders Café at Tomas Morato st. in Quezon City.
Opened only about three months ago, Nancy Go, operations manager of Book and Borders and one of its owners, says they have already developed a regular clientele. It is not small with a seating capacity of 70, and the long wall of book shelves is not full-packed with books, The ambience this creates is one of ease – it is easy to read the titles and pick out books and just as easy to return them.
You can see the owners, are young ladies with their choice of interiors and colors – powder blue for a nice soft effect with a bright splash of orange in the cushions in the reading room that seats 20. It is no wonder then that even book clubs hold their functions here.
Unlike most cafes, their food offering here at Books and Borders are not limited to coffee and cakes. They have a long line of pasta dishes and specialty dishes as well; they have whole cakes and pies that you can take out or eat while enjoying your book. And maybe it is common among book cafes, but this one also features a long communal table where many young people sit by themselves or in groups enjoying a plate of pasta or a hot cup of coffee. Pretty soon, they would be seen interacting as well, but that is a choice. Others come and go without having the need to chat – that is the way of book cafes.
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Now we come to another great new idea that definitely caters to pet lovers. Have you heard of a dog café?
Whole Pet Kitchen is a deli and bakery for our furry friends, but humans are definitely welcome as well. In fact, the restaurant also carries a whole menu for humans so they can enjoy dining with their pets. The proprietor of this curious cafe is a chef herself who comes from a royalty lineage of culinary masters, the Gonzalez clan who runs Café Ysabel and the CACS culinary school, so it was natural for Gianina Gonzalez to build a name for herself in the restaurant business.
The place is actually plain and not frivolous. Gianina and her crew came up with an all-natural menu of pet treats – treats like liver muffins and biscottis, tuna and salmon that do not have sugar or salt. Their birthday cake for dogs/cats is costly – about P1,000 for a 1.5 kilo cake that can feed your pet’s friends as well.
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And lastly, this pet café is strictly for cats – the Miao Cat Café whose owner actually owns 60 cats, 22 of them now residing comfortably at the café.
Miao Café is homey, eclectic, and the owner’s love for cats is evident in the décor, posters, photos, etc., but they do have very strict rules here. One cannot pick up any of the cats nor feed them, they don’t allow their cats to be photographed, and they do observe sanitation rules. Their operating hours are from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., then 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. In between, they sanitize and disinfect to protect the cats (and the humans who come in too? Humans are required to remove their shoes when they enter.) and allow the cats enough time to rest and play. Customers, by the way, can’t bring in their own cats because the resident cats will definitely not be welcoming.
As an afterthought to humans, perhaps, they do offer a very limited selection of light repast like pastas and drinks, but I was told there are regular customers here who love to come and just watch the resident cats, and some mothers who bring in their curious children to admire the furry residents. One really has to be a cat lover to appreciate everything about Miao Café. I honestly have not checked this one out personally, just basing everything on what we aired on our TV show, B&L, nor do I know if it is still operating, but it certainly counts among the novel businesses hereabout.
Should we find more of these novel business ideas in our show, we shall again collate them for another short series.
Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.
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