A startup cafe, offering seasonal menu, enlivens a rather quiet community in Catarman, Camiguin, engaging the local community to celebrate seasonal events, personal milestones and holidays in a more open and public venue.
“Before going back here, we’re still very undecided if we wanted to locate the cafe here or in Cebu where we have a reliable support system from a network of friends we can turn to, anytime, and where access to supplies is a lot easier compared to an island location, where choices are limited and unsteady. We named the cafe PuntaIsla because it is located here in Punta, Catarman where I grew up and Isla for Camiguin Island,” said Tabalba, who is the café’s spokesperson.
As new business owners, the couple saw, at once, the stark contrast of being a paid employee with sure means of paying bills, spending for food or buying stuff, from being inexperienced entrepreneurs with perpetual concerns on finances. Having a business is a totally new thing for them, like every day is random and fluid. Anything can happen.In the first few months, the two-man team ran the pop-up cafe inside a residential compound owned by Tabalba’s family, just to test the waters.
Berry Dracula, a vanilla-based frappe mixed with blended strawberry jam and topped with whipped cream drizzled with liquid chocolate is a blockbuster hit among local patrons. Franken Macha is blended green macha and vanilla with chocolate layering and whipped cream. Both limited edition drinks are available until December.
Preparing for collaterals and a new menu set takes a lot of time and test runs, while daily operations are on full swing. But with the entry of the new crew, expansion ideas will not be as fleeting as they were before. Tabalba and Baladhay bared plans to set up a convenience store and a small Airbnb staycation to boost tourism in Catarman.
For the planned convenience store and Airbnb facility, the co-owners are looking at sourcing financing from the DTI’s SMB Corp., an assistance the DTI is extending to startups and MSMEs.
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