Cafe brings out long, community table

The cozy interiors and the hot cup of brewed Philippine coffee keep customers coming back to Commune

There was a video that went viral recently entitled Eat Together. A lady arrives at her residential building from work and is ignored and pushed into the building elevator by uncaring neighbors. She arrives home to find her two kids on their gadgets, too busy to even greet her. In exasperation (how do you make everyone act like decent human beings again?), she is hit by an idea: Why not make everyone eat together?

She then pulls her dining table out into the condo hallway and then serves dinner. Her two kids join her. Then the guy next door sees this, and joins them, bringing a pot of something or other. Then another neighbor joins in, this time with bread.

The table becomes a community table, with every person from each floor now present, including the grumpy old man in the elevator, who was called by another neighbor’s child, who emerged with a bottle of wine.

Then everyone’s spirits change. The community comes to life. Suddenly they are no longer the uncaring neighbors. Now they are a community. By simply eating together.

It is this viral video that I remember as I dine at Commune.

Communal table

On my second visit, I was with my dog, Stardust (yes, Commune welcomes pets). We were seated at the long, elevated, communal table by the entrance. Beside me was a lawyer and a surfer girl from La Union. Near us was an American couple with model-worthy features. Beside them was another party of three, all yuppies. And at the end of the table was a solo guy, focused on his laptop.

It is not unusual at this restaurant to share this community table, although Filipinos are disinclined to eat this way.

By the end of the night, most of the diners had become friends with Stardust.

I left the cafe thrilled. First, at the idea of a cafe that welcomes dogs. But more because it felt like I just came from a dinner party, by sheer virtue of the conversations with random strangers, and the adrenalin that comes with such conversations.

Troy Dyer wisdom comes to life (minus the smoking reference): “You see, Lainie, this is all we need … couple of smokes, a cup of coffee … and a little bit of conversation.” (That’s Ethan Hawke in Reality Bites.)

And that was what I learned later, the real objective of Commune.

“Commune, the root word of community,” owner-founder Rosario Juan stresses. “That is why we have a communal table. It’s a nice way for people to meet other people.”

From tweetups to meetups

The Poblacion cafe is already the second location of Commune. The first one was at Salcedo Village a few years ago, but the lease contract ended when the owners of the original space tore down the building.

The cafe was born, interestingly enough, because of Twitter. Juan, otherwise known as @juanxi in the Twitterverse, is big in organizing tweetups. “For people who talk online to meet offline,” she says, explaining the concept of tweetups.

Since tweetups were usually held in coffee shops, she decided to just put up her own. Anyway, she had a lot of experience in the coffee business, having interned in a cafe franchise in college and even managing coffee shops in Shanghai when she lived there in 2005.

So Commune was born.

It became a place, in her own words, “where digital people could meet—like our headquarters … a place to gather.”

Philippine coffee advocate

Having been raised with an awareness and affinity for Philippine coffee, visiting coffee farms since after college (the coffee expert Chit Juan is her aunt), she has also used the venue to showcase local beans.

Today, they serve single origin Philippine coffee that you may never even have heard of: Matutum arabica beans from South Cotabato; Atok arabica from Benguet; Kapatagan and Bansalan from Davao; fine robusta from Sulu, which is reputedly from such a good terroir that it can easily be mistaken as arabica; and the Commune blend, which uses Benguet arabica with Cavite robusta.

And—attention hard core coffee lovers!—soon they will also be roasting their own coffee.

Private dining and events

The new location in Poblacion is four times bigger than the old location in Salcedo Village, being an old house. So now, aside from the cafe on the ground floor with a long community table, there is also a second floor which doubles as an events venue, and an adjacent dining room simply called Poblacion Dining Room that serves Filipino food by a young chef, the Bocuse-trained Mickey Garcia.

The Poblacion Dining Room is also where Commune now hosts a Sunday brunch starring cheese from La Petite Fromagerie. (Only every Sunday of May and only 24 seats available; reservations are recommended so make sure to call.)

It is also where the Slow Food Youth Network holds its monthly meetings. You might also find here the Business and Professional Women’s Network, where members encourage each other to conquer the world.

Upstairs, events range from Improv shows, held every second and fourth Thursdays of the month, to book launches, album launches, documentary previews, strategy planning for companies (“because the space feels more creative as opposed to their office or a hotel,” Juan explains). Even the launch by Aleth Ocampo of her artisan pottery was held here.

“Since the space upstairs is so big, we now have greater freedom for events. My advocacy seems to have expanded from just promoting Philippine coffee to also promoting Philippine culture and arts,” she shares.

Everyone welcome

Juan notes with a laugh that the cafe has been raved about as LGBT-friendly, Tinder-friendly, and now, as I personally discovered, pet-friendly. The cafe has resident cats—rescued Puspins (pusang Pinoy) Mirage, Mocha and Paloma—who even have their Instagram account @catsofcommuneph.

Aside from being a trendy cafe in what is today the hippest place in Makati, Juan—with partners Iñigo Alvero (operations) and Mickey Garcia (chef)—the space is really achieving its goal of fostering not only cats but also a community of enthusiasts for food, coffee, culture, and … Twitter!

I really like this cafe.

Commune Cafe

36 Polaris, Makati (beside Alba’s). Open Mondays to Thursdays, from 8 a.m. to 12 midnight; Fridays and Saturdays, from 8 a.m. to 1 a.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Major credit cards accepted. Wheelchair accessibility up to the ground floor only. For reservations for Poblacion Dining Room and events, call 0919859-5848.