Heritage, History, and Coffee Come Together at This Quiet Binondo Café

Apologue
934 Benavidez Street, Binondo, Manila
Contact: 0945-113-6762
Instagram: instagram.com/apologueph/
Open on Sundays to Thursdays from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and on Fridays and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m.

(SPOT.ph) The Binondo food scene is famous all over the Metro for its wide array of hole-in-the-wall establishments selling the best of the best in Chinese or Fil-Chi cuisine. Deep within the belly of Manila's Chinatown is a quaint new spot, this time with coffee front and center. Check out the new coffee shop Apologue. This humble café, along one of the district's main roads, is making buzz on social media. Calling itself the first real sit-down coffee shop in Binondo, we look into what makes this new space unique and how it fits into the culture and food space of the world's oldest Chinatown.

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Here's why you should add a stop to Apologue on your trip to Binondo:

Apologue is a quaint coffee shop along Benavides Street. Despite being one of the newer establishments in the area, you'd be surprised at how well it blends into the space. With a minimalist storefront reminiscent of most traditional Chinese shops in the area, you might miss it if you weren't looking for Apologue, as it is perfectly hidden in plain sight. 

Once you enter the café, you'll feel like you're in the middle of something old and new. Apologue's interiors reflect the style of chic library cafés. Clean, simple earth colors dominate the seating area; Cool, air-conditioned, with the smell of coffee wafting about. It's just like sitting in any coffee shop in BGC, Makati, or San Juan, only with a certain flavor you can only have in the old Chinatown. It is a peaceful respite from the busy outdoors, occasionally disrupted by the espresso machine's whirring or plates' clatter. It's easy to shrug it off as just another food spot. But if you look closer, you'll notice nods to Chinatown culture. 

From the traditional tiles on the floors and apothecary cabinets storing the shop's beans to a map of Binondo on their coffee cups where you'd expect the logo to be, it is clear that this cafe is not just the owner's —it is Binondo's.

In an interview with SPOT.ph, one of the founders explained that everything about Apologue's design and concept revolved around telling the story of Binondo amidst rapid changes and gentrification hitting the district. "There was a conscious effort to preserve Chinatown's traditional look and feel without feeling dated and tacky," said Mario Badiola, one of the cafe's founders. They didn't want to be another concrete brutalist condo storefront among Benavides's homey and cozy traditional shops. Somehow, in Apologue, you will feel a mix of the past and present in perfect harmony.

For them, the goal is to have a place for Binondo locals to gather for coffee and snacks without having to visit the neighboring business districts. A place to chill, co-work, and hopefully elevate the cafe scene in the area. But more importantly, they want Apologue to be a place where tourists can gather and see what local artists, photographers, historians, and other heritage workers in the area have to offer.

Yes, yes, it's still a cafe. You can get a wide variety of espresso-based drinks, juices, and teas. They also have a selection of house-made pastries and hot meals to tide you over a long afternoon.

But more than being known for food and drinks (which, mind you, are good and worth a try, in our opinion), Apologue strives to be known as a hub for all things Binondo. Soon to come from this quaint coffee shop are murals from local artists depicting everyday scenes from the area, collaborations with tour guides, cultural workers to bring to light the small details in the interiors and their significance, and they also plan to house photos of old and new Chinatown to serve as a timeline for those interested in the district's history. More than serving coffee, Apologue strives to serve the story of Binondo to all those willing to listen.

"We don't claim to be experts about Binondo, you can consider us like the street cats. We are locals, and we know our way around and that's something we want to share. Through our cafe, we want to tell the world that Binondo is not just the places you see on TV or the restaurants to visit." says Badiola.

More than just being a food hub, Binondo has been a witness to history. It has seen Manila transform through the years, being arguably the oldest Chinatown in the world, transitioning from one government to the next, one zeitgeist to another.  Calling Binondo just a food place is a disservice to the tremendous amount of culture and heritage seeping through the asphalt streets of this district. So, if you are interested in learning more about the artists, the photographers, the architecture, and the history of Binondo, or simply looking for a place to rest after a long day out in Chinatown, consider dropping by Apologue. Here, not only will you get a better sense of what Binondo has to offer, but you'll also get a killer cup of joe and decadent pastries to go with it.

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