Dalawang taon na ang nakaraan, itinayo ng mag-asawang si Wilbur at Rigibelle Montalban ang na matatagpuan sa Sydney CBD. Tunog-Espanyol man ang pangalan nito, kilala ang cafe sa mga Pinoy na almusal.
Narito ang aming panayam.
SBS Filipino: What’s behind the name Descanso Café?
Rigibelle Montalban: ‘Descanso’ is a Spanish word we use in our region back in the Philippines and it means ‘taking a break’. We want people to get in and come here to relax, sit down, take their time with their coffee and food.
We did not start as a Filipino café. We were offering at first the basic Aussie breakfast. After 8 or 9 months, we realised we needed to find something that’s different from other cafés, something they don’t offer so we decided “Why not start with some Filipino offerings?” One of the popular things right now that’s actually selling is the ‘silog’ offerings; we have the ‘tapsilog,’ ‘tocilog’ and ‘longsilog,’ which are essentially a traditional Filipino breakfast that you don’t actually see in other cafés.
I also thought “If I have Aussie offerings for breakfast, why can’t I have a Filipino offering for breakfast?,” that’s when we decided to have, apart from the Filipino lunch we have like ‘adobo’ and ‘sisig,’ ‘silog’ as a breakfast offering. It started slow but it’s becoming more popular now, not only for the Filipinos but also for the locals, because they start to get curious how it tastes like and what it is to have a Filipino breakfast.
How important is your coffee?
We started on the concept of having a good quality coffee that we could offer both for locals and Filipino customers. The whole concept of Descanso was actually based on me and my husband’s love of coffee. Living in Australia, we realised how important it is on a daily basis for employees, for students and for people coming from all walks of life.
You would be surprised that not only Filipinos but even our local customers would be asking, “Do you have a Filipino coffee?” and I would say, “Oh, I would love to have a Filipino coffee here.” They’ve been asking about “What is a Filipino coffee?,” because as far as they know Philippines is an agricultural country so they’re asking if we grow coffee in our country; I said “Yes, we do!” but it’s a long process. I know Philippine coffee is picking up really good and getting known worldwide but over here in Australia, it would be good to at least show the locals that we Filipinos also know our coffee very well.
Who thought of how the cafeteria would look like?
When we started it, it did not look like that. When we bought the business it looks very different from the way it is right now but I think one of the suppliers gave us an idea that if we’re going to take over the business, we might as well change the whole concept so the whole market around the area would know it’s a different café and a different owner.
We want it to be welcoming for people. At first it was a bit intimidating for the passers-by because we are near the bus stop and it was different from the last shop; it was bright and airy, but now we started to get that feeling of people just coming in because they feel like it’s easy to get in and out of the shop because though it’s a small area, it doesn’t look close-fitting from the outside.
Aside from coffee, you also offer Filipino foods and desserts, what are these Filipino foods?
Right now, ‘silog’ is getting popular; we have the ‘tapsilog,’ ‘longsilog,’ ‘tocilog’ and 'adobo' actually. ‘Adobo’ and ‘sisig’ are two of the popular dishes that people look for, not only the Filipinos but also the locals. When they come to the shop, they would say, “Oh, this is a Filipino café, what is a Filipino food?,” and they start asking, “What does it taste like?,” and because ‘adobo’ is officially our national dish, we always try to push them to taste it; ‘Adobo’ shouts Filipino so we make them taste it. Some of them would like to try something spicy, something adventurous so we offer them ‘sisig’.
We are not a full blown restaurant as we are a café so we try to choose dishes that we can offer, that will pass as a light meal and easy to prepare. Some Filipinos would ask if we have other dishes like ‘sinigang,’ ‘kare-kare,’ it would be hard really to do that for a breakfast and lunch setting so what we did, we have Friday and Saturday nights where we offer just Filipino menu. On those two nights, we have ‘sinigang,’ ‘kare-kare’ and ‘lechon kawali’.
Every day we have ‘silog,’ ‘adobo’ and ‘sisig,’ and now that summer is coming, we have halo-halo and it’s surprisingly popular even during the winter season.
You also partnered with food delivery businesses, are there more customers who prefer these Filipino foods to be delivered in their home?
We’re getting more partners so it would be easy for other people to order online. There’s actually a lot who orders. Well, food delivery here in Australia is getting popular because of convenience so we get a lot of people who prefer that.
Two years of providing service to your multicultural customers, where do you see Descanso Café few years from now?
One of the dreams we have is to make Filipino foods a mainstream food. If I could open another Descanso Café in the next few years in a place where people are wanting to have Filipino foods but never have Filipino foods, that would be one of the things me and my husband are dreaming to put up. We wanted to introduce Filipino foods to those people who haven’t tried our dishes. It is difficult, really! I think a lot of Filipino restaurants out there could relate; it’s hard to introduce our food to other culture especially we are not mainstream yet. But I think we’re getting there; I think through social media, we are making other culture curious about our food and how it tastes like.
