Island flavors connect with Bench market at BGC, Greenbelt cafés
COMFORT food with a twist is now a cooking at Bench Cafe’s second branch in Greenbelt 3, Makati. Thanks to a partnership with Foodee Global Concepts, this delicious spin- off of Ben Chan’s clothing conglomerate serves up lutong bahay bursting with endless flavors.
A year after launching the first Bench Cafe’ at Bonifacio Global City (BGC), the restaurant doubles up its efforts in encouraging everyone to #LiveLifeWithFlavor as their hashtag goes, but by “loving local.”
“‘Love Local’ as you know is the Bench philosophy and when it comes to food, people want local because it’s the flavor they grew up with,” Bench Cafe chef and Foodee Global corporate chef Carlo Miguel told The Manila Times in a sit- down interview.
“Initially as I was doing the research and design for Bench Café, I was started with a lot of high- end fusion stuff — cooking dishes like US short ribs and using other fancy ingredients. But the feedback I got from them is that ‘this is a disconnect from the Bench market — the local flavor and the price points. They won’t come if the menu’s not familiar somehow and if the food if expensive. So we had to strip down and started working within what Bench fans are really looking for,” Miguel explained.
With this concept in mind, Miguel brought these out into the menu.
Bench Cafe’s crowd favorites include bagnet kare-kare recommended with bagoong rice, their take on Boracay’s famous chori burger, sugpo sa talangka, pancit topped with sisig , and inasal liempo.
“My personal favorite is the inasal liempo because it’s something very simple but very good,” Miguel said. “My wife has family in Iloilo. Most people think native chicken right away when they think inasal . Being there, they make inasal with everything — from blue marlin to pork belly,” he shared.
Miguel explained that Bench Cafe’s inasal liempo goes through a tedious process of being
sousvide or vacuum sealing the protein for 24 hours. Sousvide helps the rich flavor get inside the meat and also helps it become more tender. The liempo is then finished on the grill to get the smokiness and caramelization inasal is known for.
To end the meal on a sweet note, Bench Cafe has also tweaked Filipino desserts and made it their own.
Alongside the bibingka cheesecake, tsoknut ice cream sandwich, and best-selling banana cue, Greenbelt passersby can treat themselves to halo-halo at the cafe’s takeout counter. Topped with refreshing coconut shaved ice, customers can choose to add ube halaya to their halo-halo for an extra sweet treat.