tornado sighting

An "Adventurous" Birthday (in the words of Dan)

Joey Ramone tells you to buy our ChocNut Frothiccino!



Welcome to Cafe Antonio! We had nothing to do so we made cartoon cut-outs of ourselves. That's Dan, me, and Retz.



Happy 21st bday Dan! Go ahead and enjoy your new friend. We surprised him yesterday by opening early and adjusting the clock 30 minutes ahead. Ate Marisse baked a chocolate cake and eclairs. Joyce and the guys gave Dan a flashlight, hand fan, and small bag from Japan Home Center. Then we gave him the Joey Ramone action figure wrapped in a makeshift cardboard guitar filled with newspaper, a couple of metal bars, and a 1.5 liter Coke bottle we put inside a guitar case so it would appear that we would be giving him a bass guitar. But he wasn't disappointed at all, he loves his Joey Ramone!

Battle of the Bands!

Cantonnites, support Spoonbridge! 8pm sa Java Avenue, Musikaunlaran ng UP ADS. Happy anniversary to you!

We will play 1 cover song, No One Loves Me Like You by Jars of Clay, and one original composition written by Jabez (ako yun, hehe), Save Him From the Lie. Please watch, astig to!

Spoonbridge members:
Beni Samiano - vocals
Jabez Flores - keyboards/background vocals
Retz Causapin - bass
Fidel Rodriguez - drums

Cafe Buzz

Here's some Cafe Antonio products you won't see posted at the cafe. Remember to ask Retz the Cashier for it.

Raspberry Mocha Frothiccino - Php 95
Strawberry Mocha Frothiccino - Php 90
Raspberry Mocha Frajelli - Php 90
Iced Raspberry - Php 75
Raspberry Milkshake - Php 55
Raspberry Iced Tea - Php 50
Strawberry Iced Tea Blended - Php 50
Caramilkshake - Php 60

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News Bits

* The Cafe Antonio family would like to say thanks to Nica for everything she has done for the cafe and making Cafe Antonio ELBI a reality. We wish her good luck and God bless on her endeavors and future plans.

* Two twisters hit the cafe last week. We're still alive, thank God! It was a real adrenaline rush. It's just one of those days where we le

learn to appreciate and value our lives, hehe.

* It's Dan's (the cook) birthday on Saturday, August 23. Happy birthday dude!

* Neil Rebua, our new 4 to 7 pm barista, will officially start this week. To Neil's friends, please come on his shift and order a ton of Chocolate Milkshakes, that's his favorite drink to prepare. Go Neil!

ChocNut and Raspberry Mocha Week

The Raspberry Mocha was just introduced last Friday. And yet our bottle of raspberry syrup is already half empty. Frothiccino fans can have this for 95 pesos, iced tea fans can also splash some raspberrry in their regular or blended varieties. For milkshake people, yes, you can have raspberry milkshake too. For those who like hot coffee, we can make you a cafe raspberry mocha. Make sure you try it this week!

ChocNut Frothiccino! Only 120 pesos



They're the first people to order the ChocNut Froth




Here's our biker/investor, Pastor Chito



One of their bikes



Cayo and Hazel, Padey's friends

Scented Candles are More Fun than Lamps

It was 2 pm when the whole Grove area lost power. We finished our staff Bible study with my mom at 3 pm and still there was no electricity. Quarter to 4, what will we do if the power doesn't come back before we open? Yes, we mustered our courage and opened our doors at exactly 4 pm. The only available drinks were iced regular andiced coffees, and for food we can only serve muffins, cookies, and chips.

To our surprise, people came! What?! People really did come to our dark, and eventually (thanks to Julius and Jeg's 3 packs of scented candles) candle-lit cafe! Here's some pictures...

Here's our first 3 customers. They're 04 BS Nutrition students, they told us they know Joyce.

Here's Jeg and I creating the illusion that we're eating pasta and drinking coffee even though both items are not available. Hehe.

Here's what we did to pass away the time. It was hot inside. Hey wait, so who's at the counter?

Iced Tea R, they kept on coming!


Julius singing his rendition of Muita Bobeira by Luciana Souza




We had to bring out another table to accommodate more customers who can't stand the heat inside the cafe.




Well, more people came. This was Jeg's idea.

This is Julius' idea.

Ahh... nice mood lighting... we love our customers! It eventually rained outside, so everybody went in.

Lighting effects

Cozy couch area plus scented candles, perfecto!

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FLAVOR OF THE MONTH (AUGUST) - CHOCNUT FROTHICCINO, only Php 120! Ask RETZ the cashier about it when you order.

Photos by Dan Sta. Romana (www.lionsdenxxiii.multiply.com)

Strongest Week in Months!

We are all truly amazed at how the faithful and loyal citizens of ELBI have supported us this week. The cafe didn't have an empty chair for six days and for the sixth day we opened our doors until 2:30 am.

Retz, Dan, and I were in superhuman mode the whole week, opening at 4 pm no matter what. Sometimes Dan and I would open the shop while Retz did the errands and one time Retz had to open the shop by himself.

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Our new barista, Julius or Julio, was a HUGE help. He took the pressure off me from 4 pm to 7 pm while I was keeping track of our expenses and inventory. He had good practice when a group of 20 Koreans ordered a ton of drinks. He stayed until 10 pm that day. I'm really proud of him because he already learned how to make all the drinks including our specials in just one week.



He will be officially starting as my parttime 3-hour replacement this week.

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Joyce was sick for most of the week but she came back on Friday and Saturday even though she's not yet a hundred percent. She's our Ms. Minchin and we miss her when she's not around to manage our rowdiness.

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Our batchmate, Tenten, came to visit yesterday. I haven't seen her in years. Our other batchmate, Elmer, was also there.

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Starting this week we will releasing our ORANGE straws. That was the original color of the straws but the delivery only came last week. So when it's orange you know it came from Cafe Antonio.

We're cooking up some new stuff for you guys just keep visiting this blog and wait for further announcements.

This is a No WiFI Zone

At first we thought having WiFi in our cafe would be a great idea. Since we're catering to the people of UPLB, having the Internet available at our cafe would be very convenient for our customers.

But look, this is Los Banos, there is already an abundance of Internet cafes in every corner. At Cafe Antonio, we want our customers to come home and experience the real essence of a coffee shop. You sip your brew, bite on a sandwich, then read a book, play some games, or just talk with your friends and scream at the top of your lungs with delight. All this with no alcohol, just good 'ol ever-reliable caffeine.

Here's what you can do in our cafe aside from ordering and eating:

READ - Our book collection include: The Chronicles of Narnia Series, The World's Most Series, Pugad Baboy comic books, Captain Underpants, and our most read bookLET, The More the Manyer. There are lots more, I just can't remember coz I have a migraine.

PLAY - Our games include: Monopoly, Boggle, Skribbage, Uno, and Chess. We'll try to buy other games.

JAM - We have an acoustic guitar you can borrow and a bongo drum from Banaue. You can also use the toothpick dispenser as a shaker. Just inform the staff if you want to have a free gig and we'll give you the platform.

GO TO THE BATHROOM - We have a comfort room and a wash area.

TAKE PICTURES - You can ask the picture-crazy crew to take your picture and post it on this blog or our Multiply site (www.cafeantonioelbi.multiply.com).

PLAY WITH THE MENU - You can request infinite combinations and customizations with our add-ons. And those we like we can add to our regular menu.

If we had WiFi, customers would just be glued to their laptops.

Watch how Jabez, Retz, and the rest of the Cafe Antonio gang passes away the time at www.youtube.com/cafeantonioelbi

Since there's nothing to do this weekend, I suggest that everybody go see The Dark Knight, if you haven't seen it yet. And if you have seen it, watch it again. There's nothing interesting happening at the cafe these days, except maybe we had our highest sales in 3 weeks yesterday. The Rocky Road's a hit, maybe because of the abundance of toppings. We ran out of vanilla syrup, so the Vanilla Sky is willing to accept new syrups, i.e. Choco-Mac Sky, Hazelnut Sky, etc. Trust me, I'm working on new flavors. I read Appetite Magazine everyday and get inspiration from the cakes I see on a certain shop I pass by to everyday.

Notice...The Joker looks like he just ate a Dunkin Donuts Strawberry-filled. Amazing acting from Heath Ledger, grrrraaabe!!! Wow I think it's my first time to talk about non-cafe stuff. I should do this more often. Hahaha!

More Work for Us

Our janitress, Ate Vivian, has chicken pox. She's absent for a week so Dan, Retz, and I have to clean the cafe once again and wake up early to wait for the ice. So much for the good life... nakakapagod nanaman...

I have no time to blog, my apologies to loyal Cantonnites.

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ChocNut Frothiccino, anyone? We think it's a good idea. Watch out for it. Just tell us if you want it for next month's Flavor of the Month. I have to think of another term for Flavor of the Month, it's kinda old.

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It was Joyce's birthday last week, we surprised her at Mio Cucina. Dang, the pics are in my laptop. We gave her 2 cakes from Karen's Kitchen, try it for yourself on your birthday (www.karenskitchen.com.ph). I'll just grab some cafe pics at our Multiply site (www.cafeantonioelbi.multiply.com) and put it here to fill some space:

Here are the balloons that Ate Faye surprised Joyce with.

Oh there's Yell! Yey!

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Here's the Rocky Road Overload, we put crushed Graham instead of nuts



Yes Mon, that's for you! We take customization to the highest level!

Speaking of customization, you can now:

1. have your teas served either hot, iced, or blended;
2. convert all 6 Cafe Antonio Specials to hot drinks;
3. pump any sauce and syrup or a combination of both to your iced lattes;
4. blend your iced lattes
5. all of this for NO EXTRA CHARGE! Watda?!