Dining in a room full of art

MANILA, Philippines - The heavy pre-All Saints’ Day traffic did not deter the more than one hundred guests who trooped to Tagaytay to attend the opening of The Dining Room, the newest project of restaurateur, coffee baron and art connoisseur Ernest Escaler.

Nevermind if it took us one and a half hours to just to navigate the South Luzon Expressway from Magallanes to Alabang or if former ambassador Isabel Caro Wilson, who drove all the way from Manila with friends, decided to take a shortcut to Tagaytay and ended up in a sugarcane field somewhere in Cavite. We were all there to give moral support to Ernest and his latest effort to help young artists.

Gallery-restaurants are now common in the Philippines and have served as alternative venues for young visual artists to showcase their works. But The Dining Room is unique and impressive not only for its size but also for its vision. The new white concrete structure, which Ernest himself designed, stands imposing among the other Gourmet Farms establishments along Aguinaldo Highway in Silang, Cavite.

ON THE COVER: The Dining Room is predominantly white, the better to show off artworks.

“I designed it big enough to serve as an art gallery for Filipino artists, particularly those from the provinces. I think they deserve a place to exhibit their works because many of them are world-class painters and sculptors,” Ernest reveals.

Indeed, one will easily notice that the restaurant, with its tall white walls, was designed more like a gallery than a dining place. In other gallery-cafés or restaurants, the exhibit walls are usually just an afterthought.

The opening exhibit entitled “White Salad” is a group exhibition of members of the Grupo Ocho of Cavite and some young grantees of the Asian Cultural Council of the Philippines (ACCP). Over 50 paintings and sculptures by Onyok Repique, Lirio Salvador, Mary Ann Jimenez-Salvador, Elvin Santiago, Crisanta Tamayo-Ancanan, Bokeng Ancanan, Daryll Jon Penafiel, Irma Lacorte, Byron Pantin Salarza, Red Raymundo and Henri Cainglet are on display inside and outside the restaurant. The works are an impressive collection of colorful abstract and mixed media paintings and metal sculptures.

Organic produce straight from Gourmet Farms is available at Refreshers

“I got inspired to build The Dining Room after the successful art auction that the ACCP held in Manila a few months ago to raise funds for our grants program. Soon after, I decided to tear down the two-storey Gourmet Café and build this new gallery-restaurant,” explains Ernest, who is chairman of ACCP.

Gourmet Café itself has had a long history of changes and renovations. It started as a small café in the very same place in 1987 and served as outlet for the coffee being produced by Gourmet Farms. The café became popular not only for its unique blend of coffee but also for the fresh organic vegetables that were being grown at the back of the café. Soon after, the coffee shop was expanded into a restaurant that became famous for its salads, Italian dishes and specialty sandwiches.

“Regular customers can still have these salads and buy the other Gourmet Farm products in the Refreshers Diner across this building,” Ernest points out. “The Dining Room will, however, be open for meals only during weekends. The rest of the week it will be an art gallery with changing exhibits,” he adds.

The Dining Room will serve a unique buffet of best-loved Filipino cuisine using the fresh organic produce that the Gourmet Farms are known for. “But we will tweak the recipe to make it a culinary arts type of cooking. I believe Filipino cooking can look and taste continental with a global appeal,” he says. “By using traditional recipes but infusing them with herbs and other ingredients and presenting the dishes in an artistic manner, we can make them look quite appetizing and attractive.”

Guests enjoy the fresh salads that Gourmet Café has become famous for.

Indeed, the native dishes that were served during the opening reception were a hit among the guests, who included choreographers Edna Vida and Denisa Reyes, culture patron and columnist Maribel Ongpin, CCP officer Tess Rances, former ambassador to the Vatican Tita de Villa, actor Ricky Davao, writer and historian Bambi Harper and Isabel Wilson, who insisted that everyone try the pasta laing which she loved. Denisa and Edna raved about the kare-kare and the bangus belly with bananas and potatoes. Me? I raved about everything, particularly the dessert spread of turonitos, macapuno tartlets and my all time favorite, halo-halo.

Chef Juvy Bautista and sous-chef Mary Queen Victoria insist that despite the fatty nature of Filipino cuisine, they will serve a healthy and appetizing menu of fresh produce from the Gourmet Farms. “We try to remove and extract as much fat as we can from the ingredients and debone all the fishes and meats. We also prepare bite-sized cuts of the ingredients to make it a convenient dining experience for the customers,” Victoria reveals. Indeed, we look forward to stopping by The Dining Room next time we’re in Tagaytay to sample once more the delicious Filipino dishes in the company of beautiful art works that Filipino artists are known for.