In Quezon City (QC, for short), the most populous and largely residential city in Metro Manila, Lester Fuentes and his partners are also on a mission to create a cluster of higher-end nightlife options for residents who are tired of slogging through the city’s notorious traffic to get to Makati—a commute that lasts at least an hour on a regular Friday evening—for a good cocktail. Fuentes’s first bar, ReCraft, a slick open-concept neighborhood bar in QC, pushes back against people’s more uptight conception of a classic cocktail joint. It started as a pandemic passion project, but turned into an unexpected success. Realizing he tapped into an unmet need in QC, Fuentes and his partners soon opened Bar.Flora, a gin and tea-focused spot with a soft and warm interior, whose playful cocktail menu is underpinned by its careful tea selection.
While the cocktail scene in Manila, Philippines, has traditionally lagged behind its neighbors such as Bangkok and Hong Kong, Fuentes thinks it’s finally caught up. “Our clientele is well-traveled and exposed to the best bars not only regionally but globally,” he says. “That’s why we have to set up bars that can stand on their own anywhere in the world.” But where Manila bars are different is Filipino hospitality, he asserts: “We have been raised to be hospitable, and it shows.”
At Big Fuzz, Quismundo, as a first-time bar owner, is shocked at the overwhelmingly positive reception the bar has received within its first year. But much like its peers—old and new—Big Fuzz’s warmth, musicality, and connectedness to its neighborhood, to the credit of Quismundo and his partners, is what makes the bar a delight—and distinctively Manila.