Carlito’s Way

Tucked in an unassuming corner in San Pablo City’s Rizal Ave. lies Laguna’s best kept secret. Carlito’s Art Lounge, opened just last September, is a sight for culture-sore-eyed travelers and diners wishing to approximate the Morato or Nakpil experience in the far boondocks. Owned and conceived by businessman, art collector and Mindanao transplant Carlito Ortega, who engaged local architect Dennis Rivera to translate his vision, Carlito’s combines the discriminating aesthete of a fine art collector plus the sumptuous palate of a connoisseur in both dining and decorating. The two-storey corner building, formerly a three-unit apartment block before extensive renovations early this year made Carlito’s possible, is divided into three distinct zones: the first floor contains the art gallery and reception area; the second floor contains the bistro-lounge; and the third is a rooftop garden-cum-tea house with the spartan but elegant accoutrements of home away from home.

Opened with no less than National Artist Napoleon V. Abueva as the out-of-town guest of honor, Carlito’s ground floor art gallery reflects the romantic country modern approach of interior design, with bright yellow walls sporting paintings by Rafael Pacheco. The trapezoidal dividing beams of the former rowhouse, fitted with stained glass panels, are now opened to let the space flow from one part to another. An open sculpture cabinet on one end seems like a modernist piece in itself, its white cubistic form contrasting with the dark brown to black pieces it houses. The most imposing sight at this level is the curved hardwood staircase that welcomes visitors from the street, and leads to the second-floor restaurant. Made from enormous planks of ancient ebony hauled from old clear-cuts in Quezon’s Polillo Island, the staircase is daringly set in a minimalist steel and concrete spine with no railings to disturb its aesthetic beauty–a concept also seen in Japanese traditional staircases. In the middle of the stairwell, an equally enormous steel sculpture by Rey Paz Contreras, representing a bamboo-like Tree of Life studded with birds, climbs five meters into the second storey. Gnarled roots of narra and molave stretch out their finger-like forms around the stairwell wall, serving as handrails, and extend to form a canopy on the second-storey ceiling. Beams of solid black kamagong, some as thick as a meter across, form vertical posts and low table leggings on the second storey restaurant.

The concept of Carlito’s dining area highlights the wave of sophisticated country aesthetic design that has engulfed the restaurateur world since the late-1990s. Among the features of this aesthetic is the dominance of contrasting light tones of matte-painted wall color, such as chrome yellow, bright maroon and aqua; oiled or varnished hardwood posts, beams, furniture and floors; simple sweeps of stairs; light curtaining and halogen lighting. In this case, however, the country motif has been taken to its roots by placing it within the rural environment itself. Crucial to the identity of this environment is the theme or motif that the establishment adopts as its own. In the case of Carlito’s, it is the combination of T’boli tinalak weave for window screens, and the furniture and sculpture in shades of dark brown, red and black of Manila’s Daambakal Sculptors Collective, headed by Contreras. The Contreras pieces display the "coral and tree" motif of which Rey has been noted for since the mid-1990s, a design in stainless steel finished by scoring the surface with welding rods to give it a weathered, organic textured effect.

Moreover, the impression of a rarified aesthete climaxes in the cuisine, the proof, you might say, of the taste of the pudding. Despite its distance from the sea, Carlito’s serves the freshest seafood on this side of Laguna, their grilled prawns being the favorite, right beside the steak tanguigue, a result of Carlito’s two-decade long friendship with the astute produce dealers of the city, as well as his own initiative to go for the freshest ingredients, buying fish as far as Real, Quezon’s Pacific Ocean coastline. The biggest secret is their sisig, cooked with mayonnaise, and bringing this hearty Pampango dish to the level of fine dining. Exploring the connections between Carlito, his passion for this establishment, and his considerable art collection (which also includes sculptures and paintings by Abueva and Cesar Legaspi), The Philippine STAR talked to the unassuming but dashing Carlito in his place at San Pablo. His story is that of the triumph of determination and will to succeed despite the odds, and of the potential to improve, despite the obstacles that fate throw in our path.

Philippine STAR: When did you start conceiving Carlito’s?

Carlito Ortega: It started off about a year ago, when I wanted to open a coffee shop that would also allow me to show my personal collection of artworks to the people of San Pablo. As you know, our city is quite far from Manila, and I wanted people to see for themselves what art really is. I enjoy art because it makes me feel happy.

How did you come about doing your interior designs?

I started getting interested in design when I was doing our first house in 1989. Since the lot where it stood was not mine, I had to use local materials, like bamboo and rattan, to save money for my own lot. After getting our new property at Brgy. Sta. Ana, I made our house in the middle of the lot, and surrounded it with trees, so that you couldn’t see it from the street. I found out that I was getting great pleasure in thinking ahead and doing what no one else here in San Pablo was doing yet. This desire to break conventional thinking led me to conceive of Carlito’s to show the people what possibilities are available if they start thinking seriously about design. By profession, I have been a poultry raiser for the past 21 years, and I felt that I needed a different environment once the day was over. Also, as a result of my search for a greater meaning in life, I befriended artists and intellectuals who shared my views on improving the way people here in the province should think and live their lives.

I first recognized Mr. Pacheco for his colors and themes very peaceful ones like fish or portraits of women when I was a teenager. Subsequently, I also grew very fond of Rey Contreras’s work recently, because of their look and shape, being both artistic and functional at the same time.

What kind of artworks do you collect?

I started collecting the things any collector had, like antiques, vases, then paintings, and now sculpture. My favorite place to go shopping was SM Megamall. My first wall pieces were actually just reproductions, but when I started to educate myself about art, I really got serious about collecting. I commissioned Mr. Pacheco to do a painting called "Fish Undersea" in 1990, which now hangs in our house. I also collect mostly wood or metal sculpture, such as those by Mr. Abueva and Ed Castrillo. It was my purchase of a Contreras stainless steel chandelier late last year that got me very interested in his works. I found the combination of wood and steel different–nakakaiba–and made me feel very Filipino when I owned them. I feel that the work of Contreras epitomizes Filipino identity in sculpture, being totally made of themes and materials from our land. That chandelier now graces the pavilion on my rooftop garden retreat. As I had a supply of discarded kamagong woodstumps from Quezon, I commissioned Rey to do me a set of furniture for a bar using this very sturdy and beautiful wood. So now, all the furniture you see in my establishment are by him and the Daambakal group. I often buy art because of my friendship with people. I feel for knowing personally the artists whose work I am collecting.

What was your motivation for operating Carlito’s here in San Pablo, instead of Manila?

I wanted to show the people in our province that art awareness and art education is possible if you opened an art gallery here. Since an art gallery alone wouldn’t make much income, I decided to combine it with a restaurant that would allow diners to appreciate the finer things in life. I have a dress code for our diners, which makes the place a special one. It won’t be just like any restaurant in San Pablo, but the best in the city. By encouraging my clients to dress properly, they would also imbibe the spirit of special-ness that art brings, but at the same time, to draw them closer to the usefulness of art. Art should be made approachable so that people can understand them more easily. Art is about higher standards of life without becoming needlessly expensive. I myself came from a humble background as a migrant from Bukidnon who studied in Cebu, and worked here in Laguna since I was 21. I have used my success to elevate the standards of my fellow citizens here, and by supporting local crafts (like the stained glass doors you see, which are done locally in San Pablo), I can also encourage our countrymen to stay home and help develop our country. My menu prices are fairly reasonable even compared to the local bars, but served in an elegant and tasteful manner. My dinnerware is from Lanelle Abueva, which makes the dining experience even more sophisticated but earthy and simple, like her pottery. Overall, I would like to be remembered as the Visayan with taste who helped the Tagalogs of San Pablo discover theirs.