Vegan Or Not, 'People Like Coming Here Because The Food's Good'

(SPOT.ph) Corner Tree Café is quiet on the Wednesday afternoon we drop by to meet owner Chiqui Mabanta. The huge tree outside, as much a landmark now as the café itself in this little pocket of Jupiter Street, Makati, gives off an urban idyll vibe, enhanced only by the works of art, muted colors and wooden fixtures in the softly lit dining space. Mabanta herself soon arrives and greets us, serene in demeanor much like the café itself. She points to one of the framed items mounted on the wall: a printed screenshot of a tweet by British Game of Thrones actress Nathalie Emmanuel, who raved about their food—in particular, their "gigantic slab of vegan chocolate cake."

It's hard to believe that despite its following, this vegetarian-vegan restaurant would be closing shop soon, 15 years after opening to the public. Mabanta is quick to clarify that Corner Tree Café as a whole isn't going to be gone for good, but since this space itself is closing its doors (her lease was up; the other tenants in the property had left over the years and Corner Tree is the last to go), there's a definite wistful sentiment among regulars and fans, many of whom —surprise, surprise—are actually meat eaters.

Also read: 
Makati Veggie Spot Corner Tree Café Announces Closure

Chiqui Mabanta and her family of foodies

One might think going the F&B route was only natural for Mabanta who comes from a family of "foodies." But nobody in the family was a restaurateur to begin with. "No one went to culinary school, not even business school. My brothers took political science and music, and my sister took up architecture," Mabanta tells SPOT.ph. "But in 1992, my brothers decided to set up a Mexican restaurant because there were no burritos here at the time and they were loving burritos in California." And thus Mexicali was born. "We set up Mexicali with zero knowledge of restaurants. We didn't do any studies to see if there was a market. We all just went by gut feel."

Gut feel and "filling the gap" is where the family's ventures into food come from. That's how the popular Café Mediterranean started, and how the taco spot El Chupacabra, one of the casual eateries that made Poblacion what it is today, was born. Before Mabanta opened Corner Tree, no one knew of a place that served good vegetarian food in Manila, and she had been trying vegetarian food in London where her sister was based.

"My sister would cook these simple vegetarian meals, and I was like, 'Wow, this is good!'" The sisters made the rounds of vegetarian cafés in London. "This was in the late nineties, and the cafés were starting to become chef-y," says Chiqui, "with 'tall' food, like a layer of spinach and then shoestring potato. Vegetarian food was becoming fun. That was the first time I saw vegetarian food presented in such an interesting way." She thought other people back home would like this food, too, and knew that from her meat eater perspective, she would make vegetarian food other meat eaters would like as well.

But you'll have chicken and fish, right?

Of course, there were non-believers in the beginning. She's opening a full-on vegetarian? People asked: "But you'll have chicken and fish, right?" It was still unfathomable at the time that someone would set up a restaurant without meat. "I wanted to change that," recalls Chiqui. "I wanted to make vegetarian food kind of mainstream, with wine and beer, just 'normal' food without meat. That's what I wanted to do for Manila."

The malls, too, didn't show any interest. Which ultimately led Chiqui to this special spot in Jupiter Street sometime in 2009. "I felt Filipinos were ready, even though malls turned me down at the time. They didn't feel Manila was ready." Mabanta found this space and the rest is history. "If I was in a mall, there wouldn't have been a Corner Tree Café. It would have been called something else. Where else can you find a place like this in Makati? I was glad Rockwell, Ayala, SM and all the others said no."

Chiqui admits she isn't an excellent cook and collected about 50 cookbooks before experimenting with vegetarian dishes with the help of a cook—the same one who's headed the kitchen at Corner Tree for decades. "I'm not a confident cook. But all the ideas in the menu and the recipes I would play around with, and I would approve or disapprove each dish." Creating the menu clearly excited her. "With vegetarian food, you could go so many ways. You could do Mexican, you could go Japanese, you could go Korean. That's why my menu is very global. It's so open. There are so many ways of cooking, too. There's also no blood in the kitchen, which was a good thing for me."

They say if you build it, they will come, and soon enough Corner Tree Café earned its followers. "We get lots of expats, we get students. We get the juice-loving vegetarians; we get the yoga people. We get people all the way from Tagaytay or the south." If people thought the pandemic would kill the café just as it did many F&B businesses,  they obviously thought wrong. "When the pandemic hit, people became more conscious of their health, so all the restaurants started offering vegetarian menus. Our market then spread out even more," says Chiqui who is now around 85% vegetarian herself.

Life's simple pleasures

When invited to dinners, Chiqui's not the type to have anything special prepared for her and will eat whatever is served. "For me, food is a source of happiness. I think everyone loves to eat. It's just one of life's simple pleasures."

This love for food translated to Corner Tree's diverse menu, which took inspiration from all over the world. The crowd favorite, for example, is the Arroz ala Cubana (P280), cooked with tofu instead of pork, and which has a satisfying meaty bite that well resembles the real thing. It's no wonder even children enjoy eating in the restaurant, which has a kiddie menu that includes spaghetti with "meatballs" (cabbage and cauliflower) and peanut butter and banana sandwiches sprinkled with sesame seeds and cocoa powder. It's also well worth trying the Spinach Feta Croquettes (P230/three pieces, P400/six pieces), which interestingly include red rice in the mix—probably for the texture. It's a delicious no-brainer, especially when dipped into the fiery harissa and cooling mint yogurt on the side. The Salted Caramel Chocolate Torte (P220/slice), with its thick layer of velvety ganache, seals the deal for dessert.

If there's anything Chiqui achieved with Corner Tree Cafe, it is to help convince Manila diners that vegetarian food can be good food and it can be enjoyed by everyone. "A lot of people who started coming here were meat eaters. In fact, eighty percent of the customers are meat eaters. If I, at any given time, look at the people around me, none of them are vegetarians, but they like coming here because the food's good."

The Corner Tree Café will not be gone forever. It will have a cloud kitchen open. It will also retain its offerings in the ADB branch and at International School Manila. Reopening the restaurant would take finding the perfect space, just like this Jupiter Street gem now about to take its final bow. Mabanta has no idea if she will find such a place. In the meantime, we can only hope that she will and another Corner Tree Cafe will show up in our midst the future—or maybe another kind of restaurant altogether, solely based on Mabanta’s gut feel.

Corner Tree Cafe in 150 Jupiter Street, Makati City, will be open for business until September 30, 2024.

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