Night Out enjoys an entire evening at a little-known treasure on Emerald Avenue.
 

The choice was simple: either catch a movie over at The Podium, then grab a late dinner—or spend the entire night, from after-office drinks to dinner and beyond, at a single venue. 

The allure of tasty drinks, mixed with care by professionals, won over our barkada’s last dissenters, so off we headed for Chef & Brewer, at the corner of Emerald and Sapphire streets, Ortigas Center. We’d all heard good things about this bar and resto (including the rumor that Bloomfields, one of the coolest bands in the city, had gigs there), so we were ready to be blown away.

Cocktails

We arrived at the tail end of Happy Hour, headed for the bar, and immediately befriended Mike the barkeep. (It helps to be chums with the bartender—your drinks arrive fast and perfectly mixed!)

To get the evening started, we ordered liberally from the cocktails menu, happily arguing the merits of various drinks before deciding what we really wanted. What we got:

• Mudslide - vodka, Bailey’s, and Kahlua with delicious coffee notes (PhP165)

• Tom Collins – surprisingly refreshing gin, lime juice, and soda water, with a drop of sugar syrup (PhP175)

• Mojito – coolly green, with white rum, freshly-squeezed lemon, lime juice, sugar syrup, and mint leaves (PhP185)

• Harvey Wallbanger – Creamsicle-reminiscent vodka, Galliano vanilla liqueur, and orange juice (PhP165).

Mike enjoyed sharing the ingredients (None were super-secret recipes anyway), and kept the drinks coming. It was only during our second round when one of us asked about their Happy Hour special—three local beers for PhP150, from 3pm to 8pm. So of course some of us had Pale drafts (three mugs, also for PhP150).

Dinner

Pleasantly buzzed but now ravenous (One cannot live on bar peanuts alone), we decided it was time for dinner. We moved to a large table and went into the second phase of our all-nighter. Some of our recommendations:

• Oysters al Forno – baked oysters with tomato barbeque salsa and mozzarella cheese (PhP335)

• Salmon Ceviche – fresh salmon slices marinated in lime juice, cilantro, tomato, and chili (PhP380)

• Chicken Pizzaiola – breaded chicken topped with tomato and mozzarella (PhP395)

You can tell our group loves tomato and mozzarella! 

One almost-favorite was the controversial Rock Lobster Balls— breaded squid and lobster balls with chili vinegar and honey lime salsa (PhP320)—controversial because some of us expected only lobster, and were disappointed because of the squid ingredient. However, for most of us, the dish passed because of the delicious honey lime salsa.  

But being Filipino, the true culinary find for us was the C & B Rice (PhP300)—this was a monstrously huge and delectable omelet stuffed with garlic fried rice with tuna and chorizo.  One order can feed up to four hungry men.  

Discovering that we needed to loosen our belts, we all decided to skip dessert, but agreed as a group to check out the Mango Jubilee (PhP225) next time. It was time for the show.

Live music

We love live music; there’s nothing like the energy of musicians in intimate venues. The night we went, we got to check out Noah’s Ark, an eight-man band with 3 vocalists. We were a natural fit for their music (’60s to ’80s), so we had a great time (and ordered more of our favorite cocktails). We called it a night around 2pm, happily buzzed.

Sadly, we missed Bloomfields by one day (one day!), but that’s okay. It gives us a good reason to drop by Chef & Brewer again—it’s now one of our favorite hangouts.

Bands that Play at Chef & Brewer Include:

Big Bash
Bloomfields
Forever Young
Highway 54
Hyperbeat
Noah’s Ark
Sounds Familiar

A different band plays each night of the week, from Mondays to Saturdays. Chef & Brewer is also open for lunch, at 11am.

(Dean Francis Alfar has won many writing awards and been published nationally and internationally. He is a leading advocate of the speculative fiction movement on the Philippine literary scene.)