Survival of the healthiest

Angelo Songco—PHOTO BY NELSON MATAWARAN

Organic meals do not always come cheap. Ingredients are expensive, and restaurateurs pay high overhead.

Nonetheless, Healthy Eats, a 60 square-meter, fast casual restaurant in the Medicard Lifestyle Center in Makati, strives to offer organic meals at just between P99 and P280, to put them within easier reach of those who want to embrace a healthier lifestyle.

Owner Angelo Narciso Songco and his relatives started out with a coffee shop in Greenhills that specialized in Kampangan food.

Meanwhile, his friend, Gina Yambot, rented a space for organic produce from the Cordilleras.

When the Kapampangan food business closed down, Songco and Yambot decided to join forces and open a health-oriented restaurant and mini-mart called Sugarleaf.

It specialized in affordable wraps, salads, sandwiches and viands using organic ingredients.

In 2011, Luis Montoya, general manager of the family-owned Medicard, offered Songco and Yambot a two-story space in the Makati branch in 2011. The restaurant concept complemented the consultation and diagnostic services in Medicard. It has since been renamed Healthy Eats.

Healthy Eats positions itself as a go-to-place for wallet-friendly, nutritious and simple to prepare meals, coupled with fast service. Healthy Eats is able to maintain affordable prices because Yambot, who heads the operations, deals directly with the farmers. Their farms have been accredited by the Negros Island Organic Certification Services. Its kitchen eschews processed foods like white sugar, white flour and monosodium glutamate.

A sandwich, wrap and smoothies are in the range of P100 to P150. The most expensive meal is grass-fed beef tapa, topped with free-range egg on highland red rice and organic side salad with home-made vinaigrette at P280.

When the restaurant runs out of ingredients, it will not compromise by buying commercial produce from the grocery.

The mini-store offers fresh organic vegetables and meats, M2 malunggay drink, salted egg chips, chicashroom or chicharon made with mushrooms, kefir, virgin coconut oil and the most salable item, raw wild honey. The regular customers are health-conscious advocates who come weekly to stock up on their organic vegetables and grass-fed meats.

Despite the prime location on the corners of Gil Puyat and Paseo de Roxas, Healthy Eats attracts a captive market rather than walk-ins—mostly doctors and Medicard visitors and office workers in the neighborhood.

“The market is for those who are into healthy living for the long haul. We want to be a reliable source without pricing ourselves too high,” says Songco.

The restaurant’s seating capacity is 25. To break even, it has to sell 20 covers a day. A cover is a restaurant term for a meal or a diner’s range of orders served. This is the basis for calculating the sales revenue.

Healthy Eats serves 30 covers a day, with average receipts amounting to P200 to P300.

Yambot admits that the restaurant and mini-store have become more of an advocacy. Healthy Eats earns enough to pay its staffers. The owners have other sources of income outside of the restaurant.

Songco, whose previous job was in public relations, says marketing has been a challenge. When Healthy Eats started in Makati, it put the word across through social media, email blasts and vegan or raw food workshops. Initially, the workshops were well-attended. Over time, public interest waned. Songco attributes it to competition from the internet where free information is easily accessed.

The collaborations with credit card companies attracted new customers. These cards enticed members with discounts for transactions at Healthy Eats. Songco cites that brief partnerships with e-commerce markets such as Groupon and Deal Grocer cover 200 coupons in a three-month frame. The biggest come-on last year was the 40 percent discount for Medicard holders.

Although the perks significantly increased the volume of customers, the earnings were substantial to maintain operations.

Despite Healthy Eats’ competitive edge—convenience of its location, the quality of the foods and affordable price, a health-oriented restaurant in the Philippines has yet to become a food destination. The typical Filipino palate takes to rice and meat.

Songco and Yambot have stopped making sales forecasts and keep their noses on their mission.

“Our role is to educate people on healthy living,” says Songco.

On his advice to small-business restaurateurs who plan to specialize in a health-oriented concept, “You need a lot of patience.”

And an extra helping of grit and determination. —CONTRIBUTED