Meet Gnostic, the Philippines' First "Dry Bar" or "Sober Bar"
Sober doesn't have to mean boring. Not at this hip new Poblacion spot at least.
Gnostic Contact Details
4/F 4980 P. Guanzon, Poblacion, Makati City
Facebook: www.facebook.com/GnosticPhilippines
Open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. (Monday to Thursday); f11 a.m. to 1 a.m. (Friday to Saturday)
(SPOT.ph) Frequently spending after-work hours in Poblacion or Pob, as Gen Zs would call it, one gets desensitized to the early-morning sights of people nursing a hangover in a nearby gotohan or street food cart; people trying to keep their balance as they wait for their car to pick them up; even people passed out on the pavement. What's not so common to see once the music has died down and you start to notice sunlight in the sky? Sober mortals. For all the fuddy-duddyness associated with skipping alcohol, the clear-headed unicorns among us may in fact be having as much (if not more) fun as everyone else in the crowded pubs and bars, minus the hangover and all the side effects.
If the thought of a fun night out with friends sans a painful hangover sounds like a win-win situation, you can start your journey at Gnostic. This is the first-ever dry bar (also called a sober bar) in the Philippines, and you can find it in the nightlife districts of Poblacion in Makati City.
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Gnostic, the first dry bar in the Philippines opens in Poblacion
Gnostic is a neon-lit dry bar or sober bar one can find in the neon-lit streets of Poblacion. “What we did with veganism is we found a cause more than that. Other than helping the welfare of animals, we also want to uplift people’s consciousness which is: You eat good food which is vegan, but also refrain from drinking alcohol," shares Dhanvan Saulo, one of the owners of Gnostic and vegan restaurant Cosmic, in an exchange with SPOT.ph.
Saulo and the other co-owners of Gnostic were either born vegan or eventually became vegan, and part of their lifestyle is not drinking alcohol. This is not to say you can't drink alcohol as a vegan; most alcohol is, in fact, vegan-friendly. But Saulo explains that it's more about the toxins that you get from the drink. The only exception to their no-alcohol rule at Gnostic is drinking kombucha, a naturally fermented drink with trace amounts of alcohol, around 0.5%.
The concept of "sober bars" or "dry bars" has been around for some time now in the West. The Gnostic team now brings it to the Philippines for the first time in hopes of opening people's eyes to the possibility of enjoying a night out with their friends without intoxication, the inevitable hangover, and other alcohol side effects.
What's on the Gnostic menu
Everything on the Gnostic menu is alcohol-free as it uses tea, kombucha, and other flavoring agents to create the drink, served in a cocktail glass. The dry bar's signature alcohol-free cocktails include the Lychee Haze Nogarita (P190), which is kombucha-based and has crunchy basil seeds; the Apple Spiced Cider (P190) that gets its spice from cinnamon; Pink-Rosas Nojito (P240) which is a mojito mocktail with strawberries; the Bogus Baileys (P240) that takes on a different approach to the famous Irish cream liqueur; and the Purple Lila Cloud (P240) which has butterfly pea, non-dairy cream, lime, and pineapple. As for the Detox Shots, they have creative flavors taking after Filipino viands, namely the Sinigang Cuastic (P100) and Tinola Tonic (P100). You can get two shots of your choice for P175, and three shots for P250.
Other drinks on the menu are the Gnostic Ice Teas which are anything but your usual—we're talking Kiwi Chrysanthemum (P190), White Lychee (P190), and Sampalok Black (P190). They also have non-alcoholic beers, which JICYDK, do exist. Gnostic carries the brand Coolberg (P190/bottle, P890/bucket of five) which comes in flavors of Peach, Ginger, Malt, Cranberry, and Strawberry; San Miguel 0.0 (P120/bottle, P500/bucket of five); and La Croix (P100) sparkling water in different flavors such as Pamplemousse, Passion Fruit, Lime, and Berry.
It's a cardinal rule to eat before consuming alcohol, and while this doesn't apply with Gnostic, you should still order food, especially if you plan to dance the night away. All of the dishes on the menu—even the dessert—are vegan-friendly.
The pasta and ramen options are Spicy Laksa (P590), Tantanmen (P590), Vuttered Cream Miso Pasta (P590), and Rigatoni Baked Pasta (P590). You can order this with any of Gnostic's 8-inch pizzas: Margarita Pizza (P290), Mushroom King Pizza (P390), and Spinach Varmesan Pizza (P490).
The dry bar's heftier options fall under the Kanin'g Mangkok section of the menu: Cauli Gochujang (P550) and Schezuan Tofu (P550). The lighter eats you can nibble on are the Spicy Nectarine Mixed Nuts (P100), Dumpling Crispies Gochujang (P150), Spiced Corn Ribs (P150), Seacharon (P210), and Sizzling Agedashi (P290).
As for dessert, they have heavy vegan cookies like the Nori Cookie (P190 each) which has almonds and dark chocolate, Chocolate Chip Cookie (P220 each) which has dark chocolate mixed in with pistachio and macadamia, and lastly, the Gnostic Signature Apple Pie (P240) which is a recipe of Viktoria Salazar, one of the Gnostic owners.
What we recommend at Gnostic
We have two recommendations on the alcohol menu. Don't miss the Purple Lila Cloud—a lovely drink with a light and fruity drink with its velvety whipped milk on top of the drink (a.k.a. the "Cloud" in the name of the drink) layered on top of the vibrant purple hue from the ternatea tea.
On the opposite side of the flavor spectrum is the Sinigang Cuastic, another one of our Gnostic favorites. This detox shot does look like it's sinigang soup in a shot glass but there's a lot more to it. You get the heavy scent of lemongrass, and cubes of gelatinous sweet gabi sinkers greet you as you sip. The shot glass is also rimmed with salt to counter the sourness of the sampaloc mix used in the drink.
In our own experience trying out Gnostic's non-alcoholic drinks, we found that there's a learning curve in drinking these "clean" drinks, especially if you're the type who often drinks liquor. This adjustment is all about one's drinking pace.
People who drink alcohol tend to nurse or sip their drinks because they don't want to get drunk too fast, or to counter the usual burning sensation in the throat that alcohol brings (also known as hagod). Ergo, you can drink these sober sippers twice or thrice as fast as compared to non-alcoholic drinks or mocktails.
The upside is that non-alcoholic cocktails should be cheaper than alcoholic drinks, and that is the case with Gnostic. The dry bar's signature alcohol-free cocktails are affordable, the cheapest drink is at P190 and the most expensive drink is at P240. By Poblacion standards, these prices are good.
Of course, the other good thing about it is the no-hangover part. If you're spending your Friday night or Saturday night at Gnostic, you don't have to spend the next morning in bed, with a Pocari Sweat or Gatorade bottle right beside your cocooning space. Given that weekends are criminally short as it is, you can spend it doing something else.
How to reserve a table at Gnostic
Gnostic is on the fourth story of 4980 P. Guanzon—don't worry, there's a lift to take you all the way up there. The place is quite spacious but if you do need to secure seats, you can send Gnostic a message on their official Facebook page with the following details: Date, time of reservation, contact name, contact number, and number of people dining in.
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