Bigger PHILRESCA highlights growing resto, café, bar industry

Following a successful debut last year, the Philippine International Restaurant, Café & Bar Expo (PHILRESCA) will once again bring the world’s leading and rising brands, suppliers, players and professionals under one roof and provide the industry with a definitive business-to-business (B2B) sourcing platform from March 8 to 10 at Hall A, World Trade Center Metro Manila.

PHILRESCA remains the only trade show in the Philippines that officially hosts competitions sanctioned by World Coffee Events, the premier producer of events for the coffee community worldwide.

As the one-stop-shop B2B event for restaurant, café and bar entrepreneurs, PHILRESCA’s three-day event will connect some 3,000 attendees to 45 suppliers at the exhibit floor and during business seminars. The number of exhibitors rose by 22 percent this year, attesting to a dynamic and growing industry. To complement the presence of exhibitors, the seminars will provide restaurant, café and bar owners with the latest trends and best practices to scale up their businesses.

Meanwhile, the country’s most awaited coffee competitions, the Philippine Coffee Championships, will run concurrently with PHILRESCA.

The championships are designed to upgrade and test the skills of professional Filipino baristas, latte artists, mixologists and brewers through a series of four events:

1) 5th Philippine National

Barista Championship focuses on promoting excellence in coffee and advancing the barista profession in the country. The winner will compete at the World Barista Championship in Amsterdam, Netherlands on June 20 to 23.

2) 4th Philippine National Latte Art Championship highlights artistic expression in a competition platform that challenges the barista in an on-demand performance. The winner will represent the country at the World Latte Art Championship in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in November. 3) 1st Philippine Brewers

Cup, One of the two new competitions this year, it highlights the craft of filter coffee brewing by hand, promoting manual coffee brewing and service excellence. The winner will officially represent the Philippines at the World Brewers Cup, Sept. 16 to 18 in Dubai.

4) 1st Philippine Coffee in Good Spirits Championship promotes innovative beverage recipes that showcase coffee and spirits in a competition format. It highlights the barista/ barkeeper’s mixology skills in a setting where coffee and alcohol go perfectly together. Like the World Latte Art Championship, the World Coffee in Good Spirits Championship in which the Philippine winner will join is set in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in November.

Fans of fine art and coffee will be indulged at PHILRESCA Meets Art, a special gallery featuring the works of 20 Filipino artists. Designed in collaboration with World Experience Philippines and Sining Kamalig, the exhibition will highlight the distinct environment that art helps create to deliver the ideal restaurant, café or bar experience.

“The restaurant, café and bar industry continues to grow, particularly driven by rising disposable income, strong consumer confidence and the non-stop evolution of the Filipino palate which prefers better, if not superior, product quality,” May Juan, president of Phil. Asia Conferences and Exhibitions Inc. said.