Weird Wednesday

Wednesday—a very weird yet productive day. Usually a Wednesday is what we call a “patay na araw” but God is good once again, customers kept on coming all throughout the day.

Nica wasn’t feeling well that day, I told her to rest or come in late. She arrived at 4pm to lead our opening prayer. We already had two groups of customers at that time.

At 3:30 pm, our friend, Tong, was already there with his cool not-for-rain umbrella. Unfortunately it rained. Anyway he bought a latte and bunch of cookies, I think he bought 10 of them, basta naubos na agad!

Fidel brought along a truck-load of members from BLD. So we went to work right away, but no pressure, we enjoy those moments.

Later that night, a band called Patrick Star played a few songs for us. It was actually the first gig at Café Antonio. Hey guys please send pictures, ok? (cafeantonio_elbi@yahoo.com) Everybody had a great time, next time uli!

It was as getting late, and the X-Wurd Varsity was getting impatient. We waited for the right moment and then we started without our main man, HotMoves, and our team captain, La Toro Tora the Explorer. My sister downloaded crosswords for us. We finished the “Hollywood” puzzle in a flash! We did the Inquirer puzzle in 15 minutes, good job guys, we’re getting better!

We also started the “HINDI LAHAT Campaign”. We printed stickers saying: White Mocha Frothiccino – Hindi Lahat ng Mocha Maitim, then we gave them to anyone who would order a white mocha frothiccino. We also brainstormed others like Black Forest – Hindi Lahat ng Forest ay Green (that one was from Yell), and Ham & Egg – Hindi Laging Cheese and Kasama ng Ham, Pwede ring Egg (that’s from Joyce). We’ll print stickers later.

AND YES… our legal documents and other paper-ry matters are DONE! We are now legal! Haha! Infinite MEGA-Kudos to Kuya Erol for going through all the hassles of registration life.

What am I missing… hmmm…

Oh yeah, my mom bought us food and gave us a tip! And Benny aka Blankee B. brought home pizza, yeah!

I love Coke.

That’s it! Thanks once again customers and blog readers…

Retz and I did a general cleaning of the café yesterday, we will run errands after this blog…. He’s wating for the ice right now..

Thanks again blog readers, continue supporting Café Antonio because your coffee will always be our passion! Your pastries too, and your sandwiches and pasta, and non-coffee drinks….

Have a good day, enjoy Labor Day, and God bless y’all, ayt? Good job.

Experimental Specials

We've been working on new flavors for our frothiccinos. We've come up with 2 so far, the Choco-Macadamia (Php 120) and Choco-Peppermint (Php 105) Frothiccino. It's not included in the menu board so just request for it when you order. Try it, ayos yun!

Crossword Night

Yesterday should have been the most boring of boring summer days. But thanks to the power of 2 newspapers, the KrOZzWuRD Var-Z.T. was born. The crosswords were tough; we had a group solving the STAR crossword while we were working on the INQUIRER puzzle. We switched papers because Retz’s group struggled mightily with STAR, tsk tsk. We didn’t finish the crosswords because it was a Monday, we scheduled crossword night for Saturdays. Yes, malabo nga.

Rainier left early that night so he missed the draft for the varsity team. I’m sorry dude, you’re not on the roster. We made a lineup, wrote it down and designated a team captain. We made nicknames and emblems which we wrote on our left hands. Then we silently practiced our team yell (because there were still customers).

Here’s the final lineup:

Chino aka HotMoves
Benny aka Blankee B.
Padeys aka G.U.J.A.B !
Retz aka low_BALLZ 24
Jabez aka Alejandro
Joyce aka Dutchess of Doomz
Yell aka Frajelli SKa-Avenger
Nica aka La Toro Tora the Explorer (Team Captain)

Crossworrrrrrd…. YEY!

Graduation, congrats batchmates!

Mahalia's Grad after party

Mahalia's grad party


Yell: Female DJ

Congrats Majals, magna cum laude, BS AgChem!

Congrats Arnel, cum laude, BS CE!

Grand entrance!

A surprised Komz

Mimay, flirting with Padeys, hehe

My BA Socio 03 batchmates, thanks guys!

Bring it!

What a day, what a day. Just when we were about to get used to "normal days" Friday comes and bam! We had customers until 1:30 am! Wow, I think I haven't made that many frothiccinos in my life! Another reason to thank God...He brings in the customers for us.

We had a lot of guests today. My orgmates Yeho, Tin, and Len were there. Thanks guys, congrats Tin, you're graduating later! Um who else, the usual dose of the Lee clan was there with their batchmates and friends. Pins later! Sir Rem from DevCom was also there, he had three free stickers. Oh yes, our batchmate Kulas also came to visit. I had a great time talking to you in English, it was very liberating indeed, congrats on your ad agency gig. More power to yah! Another batchmate, Nikki also came to visit. It was her first time at the cafe since it opened but she's no stranger to the cafe since she was always there when we were renovating the place. Wow I'm typing without looking at the keyboard, kewl. Arnel and his entourage were also there, Paul, Vince, Mon, and Retz. Congrats Arnel, cum laude yeah!

Well obviously I'm not sick anymore! I had a great time, yes cleaning is fun and making drinks for people is even more funnerer...haha! We had this South American customer and he liked the espresso. He told Nica that it reminds him of some cafe in Europe. Cool...yup. Thanks dude whoever you are.

I hope our bosses in Dumaguete are reading this...hey guys we're having a blast up here! Hope you can visit again. We're expecting a monster crowd later, please pray for us!

Wow, thanks guys, we are overwhelmed. Thanks a lot! Always pray for the three of us. Pray that we would continue to enjoy this business and that the desire to serve would never fade away! God bless!

Never a Dull Moment at the Orange & Black

A customer celebrates her birthday at the cafe.


When gamu-gamos attack!


We had to turn off all the lights and open the door to let out the swarm of gamu-gamos that invaded our bright yellow cafe. Our batchmates were there to help us solve our dilemma. Thanks to the ideas of Chino and Mahalia!

Ate Faye, Ate Pat, and Ate Mel...chillin'...


A disgusted Padeys!


My mom, my sister, and Kuya Herbert having dinner.

Brandon posing for a shot. Look at Watts gushing... hehe

The cafe looks best at dark.

Here's our new signage-lighting thingy from Dumaguete...cool.

Makes the cafe look big.

Workin'...


Ged and Fidel having a light moment.

Red Paracetacol

Seems like the days are starting to get normal...

There was a steady flow of customers yesterday, which was good for us, para naman hindi nakakapagod masyado. But the accumulated stress has taken its toll on me as I went down with a headache at around 5 to 8pm. I took Medicol, paracetamol, and Red Bull to keep me alive until closing time. Right now I still feel a little queasy, maybe because of the heat or the stress or both. Anyway, this job is fun, I love cleaning the cafe and washing the dishes but of course it's tiring too.

We gave away free "product stickers" for the first three who ordered any of the following: strawberry frothiccino, black forest, choco-macadamia latte, and peachy mango.

Last night we had the owners of Lacxo Bar and Resto visit the cafe. We recognized each other because they were also the managers of Galleria Ethnika, an ethnic shop where I used to but my burloloy back in high school. Thanks for coming guys, dyan lang naman kayo sa tapat, next tym uli!

As usual our ice supplier is late, that's why I'm blogging right now here at Koinoniadotcom. This is also the place where we print our stickers. Thanks Kuya Rodel and Drew for the merch!

That's all, thanks customers for supporting us. See you later!

Enjoy Cafe Antonio Coffee at Home

The Cafe Antonio Housblend is now available in 250-gram bags for only Php 250. Buy it in bean-form or we will grind it for you at our shop. All the coffee-based drinks in Cafe Antonio are made with the Houseblend.

What is a Houseblend? Here's an excerpt from my blog, The Coffee of Jabez (www.thecoffeeofjabez.blogspot.com):

Cafes are there for several reasons. One reason is that (if they're truly passionate about coffee) they want you to taste their houseblends. A houseblend is a mix of beans (arabica and robusta) that is unique to the coffeeshop. That means that every cafe has a different tasting houseblend. The blend may contain a 30:60 or 50:50 proportion of robusta to arabica beans or a mix of different arabicas from different places (example, 20% from Columbia, 30% from Sumatra, 50% from Brazil, etc.). A houseblend may contain about 3 to even 8 different beans. This creates a far-out experience for the coffee-drinker.

Customer Celebrates Birthday at Cafe Antonio

Candy, Aldo, and Sherwin

Aldo, turns twenty-something...hehe

Bay-beeeee!!!

Iced Strawberry (Php 75)

Friday. Not much was expected from this time of the week since ELBI culture requires its people to rest after Thursday Gimik Night. And we thought that maybe people got over the Cafe Antonio hype and maybe its time to just stay home and watch TV or just sleep and save some money for the weekend. But God is good, as usual. The number of orders and customers was overwhelming! 12 am and the place was still full! We would like to say thanks to all our customers, friends, and family, what you have done for Cafe Antonio today was amazing.

A group with a very adorable baby came to visit the cafe that night. When we saw him we all went, "aaawww...ang cute ng baby!!!" Then we all went to him with our camera phones and took pictures. They were the only customers at that time, and they were very friendly, so the CA staff had a chance to talk with them. They told us that they were Ruralites, having heard that we sang a portion of the UPRHS hymn. Haha! They liked our place and the pasta. They were very appreciative indeed. Then they told us that they own the restaurant called Arla's, along Maahas. They gave us calling cards before they left. Thanks guys, please come again. We had a pleasant time with you!

A long lost batchmate graced the cafe that night...it was Joyce Maloles! She had a tripod and a huge backpack with her, which was weird. Hehe. She now works with the AFP. Cool. We miss you Joyce, punta ka uli!

A couple minutes before midnight, a guy went to the counter and asked us if anyone of us can sing. He wanted us to sing Happy Birthday to his friend who would be turning twenty-something in a few minutes. We agreed, then we prepared a large blueberry muffin with whipped cream just for him, on the house! When the clock struck 12 we turned the music off and sang Happy Birthday while delivering the muffin. Happy birthday to you Aldo T. Lim! A touching moment indeed. Hehe.

The day turned out great. During our closing prayer, we had our friend, Mon; our batchmates Aaron, Fidel, and Retz; Joyce's cousin, Ate Marisse; and Nica's mom with us to thank God for another successful run. Please continue praying for us, the staff: Nica, Joyce, and I, that we would not get sick and that we may not lose heart in what we are doing. Your prayers and support are always appreciated and acknowledged. Thanks guys. Special thanks to the Bonita family. Your pastries are a hit! Thanks also for supporting Joyce in this endeavor of hers. God bless everyone.

Thursday Gimik Night

Ate Faye, Ate Manell and her Antonio's Hot Choco, huwow!

Antonio's Hot Choco, Php 75, with whipped cream and marshmallows.


The cappuccino, Php 45 (cup), Joyce and I made for Mahalia using the stencil my sister, Joyce, bought for us.


Mahalia with copies of her thesis and her Cafe Antonio take-out bag.

Opening Day: Parang Stock Exchange!

Our floor managers, Padeys and Yell

The CA Crew: Jabez, Joyce, Nica

Like all classic opening days, Cafe Antonio's debut was a "disastrous success!" It was a rainy day and the elements were against us as it "moisturized" our outdoor furniture. Minor setback. It was still 3pm and we would be starting at 4pm. Pastor Chito came to bless the place. We had a ribbon-cutting ceremony; my father, Nica's mom, and a few guests were there to grace the momentous occasion.

After the ceremony, we started operations at exactly 4pm and Nica, Joyce, and I went to our respective stations. A few minutes into the day, we lost power and water! Haha! We all just laughed at the irony! At least we know the emergency light works! After 5 minutes, everything went back to normal. Hordes and hordes of people came, like wildebeasts in the movie, The Lion King. We worked non-stop from 4pm to 9pm! Walang usap-usap!

We are all very thankful for the people who came. Our batchmates from Rural were there and a ton of our other friends and family also came. Yell and Padeys, were there to provide us assistance (they will be doing so for the whole summer).

It was overwhelming, that's all I can say. Right now, we're still at the cafe and we will be closing at 1am. We thank God for everything, this is certainly the work of His hands. We hope that we would be doing excellent service to anyone who would be visiting us. Sorry to Ate Faye, for the delayed drinks. Di na mauulit yun uli! Yeah, special mention ka!

Ayun,bisita lang kayo, and keep on supporting Cafe Antonio. Thanks thanks thanks guys, we love you all!!!

Showtime!!!

After a few tweaks here and there, the Cafe Antonio crew is ready to rock! We will be waiting for you guys at 4 pm today. BUT remember, hindi lang kami sa 14 open, you can come anytime! So don't feel bad if you can't come today, the only stuff that we will be giving away for free are a few coffee-themed soaps (http://www.rebirthsoaps.blogspot.com/) and a couple of merch... no free food and drinks guys, no discounts too. Sorrrryyyy! But if you reeeeally want to be part of this momentous occasion please do come, you might get special mention from our blog. Example, DEO "PADEYS" CAJANO gives 500-peso tip! Ayun, haha!

Thanks for your support blog readers and Friendster friends, we hope to see you tomorrow. Good night and God bless!

3 Days to Go!

GED, NICA, FIDEL, NIKKI

NICA and TEACHER GRACE

Practice week. A lot of friends frequented the cafe these past few days for a taste of our free food and coffee. The cafe was also "pimped" a little according to the suggestions and specifications of our bosses in Dumaguete. The supplies also came yesterday thanks to the Pinero's relatives(Thursday),--the Torani syrups, sauces, plastic cups, cardboard sleeves, coffee, mixes, etc. A bunch of boxes filled the place! So we cleaned everything up, and arranged and rearranged and so on. My parents were there to help, and Joyce's sister, Faye, was there for moral support (she also bought a tumbler, yey thanks!).

A bunch of our batchmates also graced the occasion. Lawrence was ther for a "surprise" visit. Congrats to you bro, cum laude! Yell and Ged also went after lunch. A couple of Joyce's people went to varnish the new installations and our couch lady, Tasha, was there to measure the couch. Benny, Chino, and Fidel came in the afternoon. And yes, Ate Manell went also and brought some baked goodies her mom made. Uhh.. what else..

Soundtrippin' in the afternoon til evening, yeah.. good times guys, good times...

Today (Friday), Nica, Benny, Yell & Fidel (briefly), and I went to the cafe for some good 'ol general cleanin' fun! Nica scrubbed and polished the floor, I licked the CR clean, and Benny polished the furniture. Dance party with Mac, Padeys, and Chino in the evening. Then we ate some chips and drank Mountain Dew. Don was also there for a while.

I already turned the espresso machine off, but then Ate Mila (the landlady's sister) came over and told me that she told her customers at Ning's Thai that we had coffee. They ordered two brewed mugs. So I opened the espresso machine again and made them excellent coffee! Haha! They paid us and told me that they enjoyed the coffee. They were amazed with our stirrers (the little whisk-like things my sister, Joyce, not Joyce-Doy, but Joyce-Joy, anyway, bought for us in Singapore), hehe. Hey, thanks unknown customers, come visit us again!

It was a fun week. We didn't waste electricity entirely. Tomorrow (Saturday), Nica and Joyce will be doing some final grocery shopping and I'll be staying at the cafe to supervise some other installations. Hopefully, the WiFi people would come and install what they're supposed to install.

Yep, 3 days to go...exciting, really. Continue praying for us. Pray that God would use this cafe for His glory and not ours. Woot woot!

Our Menu

Plan ahead, check out our menu...



HOT COFFEE
Espresso - Php 30
Espresso ala Mode - 50
Espresso Machiatto - 35
Brewed Coffee - 30 (cup), 40 (mug)
Latte - 40 (cup), 55 (mug)
Cappuccino - 45 (cup), 50 (mug)
Mocha - 75
White Mocha - 75
Caramel Latte - 75
Caramel Machiatto - 75


BARISTA'S CREATION
Hazelnut Latte - 75
Macadamia Latte - 75
Vanilla Latte - 75
Raspberry Mocha - 85
Cookies and Cream - 90
Antonio's Hot Choco - 75


ICED COFFEE
Iced Espresso - 35
Iced Latte - 45
Iced Caramel - 75
Iced Mocha - 75
White Cafe Mocha - 75
Iced Strawberry - 75


FROTHICCINO (16 oz)
Mocha - 75
Caramel - 75
White Mocha - 75
Black Forest - 90
Strawberry - 75


FRAJELLI
Mocha - 70
Caramel - 70
White Mocha - 70
Strawberry - 70


SPECIALTY DRINKS
Blue Crush - 45
Creamy Pineapple - 60
Peachy Mango - 60
Iced Tea (Regular) - 30
Iced Tea (Blended) - 35

MILKSHAKES
Milkshake - 40
Brownie - 60
Chocolate - 60
Strawberry - 60


PASTA
Alfredo - 50
Bolognese - 50

SANDWICHES (with chips)
Tuna Melt - 30
Tuna - 40
Tuna Crunch - 45
Chicken - 45
Chicken Cheese - 50
Ham & Egg - 55
Egg - 40


ADD-ONS
Whipped Cream - 20
Ice Cream - 20
Syrup - 15
Sauce - 15

PASTRIES (to follow)

NOTE: Prices may change without prior notice.

Merch, Mugs, and Our First Unofficial Customer

A package fron Dumaguete containing mugs, tumblers, t-shirts, and an industrial blender arrived at the cafe this afternoon (to our delight!).

The tumblers come in two variants, a medium-sized one with no handle is priced at Php 235.00 each and the large variant w/ handle is priced at Php 295.00 each.

There are 3 t-shirt designs to choose from, each one priced at Php 195.00. The first customer to arrive and order gets a free t-shirt.

Our inverstor, Pastor Chito with his family, arrived unexpectedly and bought a large tumbler and tipped us generously. We made them free hot drinks.

We also practiced making our cold drinks a while ago using our freshly delivered industrial blender and the result was excellent (thanks to Joyce)! Our team sampled a mocha frothicinno together with Joyce's cousin.

Next week will be a busy week as we prepare for the opening on April 14. We will open at 4pm and close at 1pm. You can visit us from Monday through Saturday.

Continue praying for us and we thank all the people who texted all their friends and family to come to our cafe.

A Visit from Our Bosses and an Unexpected Trial Run with Espa

The LB team’s bosses from Cafe Antonio-Dumaguete, Kuya Rayvin and Kuya Rochris Pinero, came to visit the branch to help prepare for the opening of the cafe on April 14, Monday. They did an "extreme makeover" the other day and yesterday with the LB team’s contractor Kuya Boy, an electrician, and Jabez’s mom. They went to IRRI for lunch and bought some stuff at Robinsons and some preliminary experimental ingredients in preparation for a trial run for “some” friends in the afternoon. Nica texted some of friends to come over and sample free lattes, caffe mocha, and brewed coffee. To their surprise, their friends from the espaleklek fraternity came instead of those they texted.

There were around 10 of them including one of their batchmates from Rural, Vinci. Most of them ordered café mochas which the barista, Jabez, made with Hershey’s Lite Choco Syrup and several kinds of milk they bought to experiment on (the café will be using Torani Sauces for regular operations). The ever hyper barista made the mochas with Gloria Estefan’s Congga playing in the background and the spotlight shining on him. After having drunk about 4 espressos that day and with the excitement of making coffee again with an actual espresso machine after 4 months in front of many people, poor Jabez made a mess and spilled some choco syrup on his friend Fidel and made crappy etching designs with his shaking, caffeine-controlled hands. Tsk tsk. Redemption came when Joyce’s friend, Karl, came and ordered a café mocha. Jabez finally did something right, thank goodness.

It was really tiring and pressure-packed. But it was fun and exciting too. It gave the LB team a preview of things to come. Thanks guys, your presence was a blessing in disguise. Sige para sikat kayo, nandun si Ged, Fidel, Chino, Benny, Mac, Gideon, Javs, Rex, Pecs, Rudden, and Al. May kulang ba? Dagdag nyo nalang sa comment box. Hehe. Joyce and Jabez’s families also came later that night to sample the free coffee.

The LB team and the Dumaguete team concluded the day with a meeting while eating takeout KFC grub at the café. One of the café’s investors, Pastor Chito together with his wife, came before the meeting started and they ended the night with a heartfelt prayer from each one.

This was a very productive two days for the team even though Nica only had an hour’s worth of sleep due to the death of her grandfather and the events that followed; Joyce had slits for eyes due to lack of sleep; and Jabez palpitating due to over-consumption of coffee. They got things done despite all odds and they thank the Lord for giving them the heart to do all these things and for proving once again that His timing is always right and certainly the best.

God bless you all!