From the outside, The Appraisery looks like your typical café—tables and chairs are set out, framed photographs adorn the walls. Couple that with the grime and the grit of neighboring shops, and the place seems like nothing special.

Its interior, however, blows away this first impression. A closer look reveals a clothes rack teeming with stylish finds that are up for sale, stacks of indie paperback comics and various collectibles sitting on end tables. Upstairs, a shelf is filled with dozens of board games of all shapes and sizes.

The Appraisery is just one of several off-the-wall cafés that have been popping up around the Metro. Others include Rumpus Room, which is right next to The Appraisery at Cubao Expo, Ludo Board Game Café in Tomas Morato and DITO: Bahay ng Sining in Marikina. As these niche cafés continue to gain more ground, different crowds, like gamers, fashion lovers and art enthusiasts, can all find something unique to enjoy.

These cafés aren’t just serving the usual light snack and coffee or tea; they are also offering their own twists to the café experience with added elements like games and art. Drawing in the crowds is one thing, but as the owners of these cafés can attest to, quenching the thirst for coffee and culture is another.

The Appraisery

For Victor Prieto, owner of the board game café The Appraisery, the goal has always been to create something out of the box. This café, in particular, started out with “recycled fashion.” “We [would] take in clothing styles or vintage styles, and then we would appraise them. That’s why we call it The Appraisery,” he explains.

The Appraisery hasn’t always been a board game café. Prieto used to think that the concept of a board game café wouldn’t be popular in the Philippines; in fact, the handful of board games he owned initially served as mere decorations on the café’s shelves.

Since encountering the local board game community, however, he has realized that it is a growing one. It appears to be diverse, as Prieto believes that The Appraisery and Ludo cater to different segments of this crowd. “Ludo is better suited for families, and [the Appraisery] is more of like your best friend’s crib. You come in, you’re hanging out, you guys are having fun, the people that come here turn into instant friends that you can mess around a lot.”

With his eye on the future of the café, Prieto says that he plans to revamp The Appraisery soon with fresh plans for community-based events aimed at regulars and game lovers alike. But of course, this expansion can’t happen without a few setbacks. Edu Ibazeta, a regular customer of The Appraisery, mentions how the upcoming events can’t keep on going around by word of mouth. “There has to be a better way of marketing this,” he says.

Rumpus Room

Kiko Aquino certainly owes a lot to the owners of The Appraisery, as they were the ones who suggested he open up a video game café. “Earlier this year, I wanted to put up something, I wanted to build my own business,” he recalls. “Some of [The Appraisery owners] said, ‘What else are you into aside from video games? So ayun, try that! Try it here.’”

A possible force behind the rise of these cafés is the community that brings business to them. Aquino says two main groups support his café: Gamers and parents. Although the gamers were a crowd he was expecting, the presence of parents and their young children is something he adapted to.

“Sometimes, someone sees [other people’s] kids in [Rumpus Room] and they realize that it’s kid-friendly,” Aquino jokes in a mix of English and Filipino. “So I’ve got stations of kids and I’m like, ‘Wow, what should I do? Are they allowed to play Mortal Kombat or Call of Duty?’”

While the common perception of video games is that it’s a solitary hobby, Aquino believes it can be “a social thing.” At Rumpus Room, old customers often teach first timers and many trade ideas, hints or tricks, and even the video games themselves. Even Aquino himself offers to play with customers or to teach them new games whenever they’re willing.

Several of Rumpus Room’s patrons have suggested that Aquino hold regular tournaments in the future, but this might have to wait as Aquino has other priorities. He notes that he first needs to establish the name and direction of his café before thinking of the business side of things. “You gotta get out there. We gotta be way more present online. We’re not exactly the techiest people in the world, so effort siya,” he explains.

Ludo Board Game Café

According to Jay Mata, Ludo’s vice president for marketing, the idea behind their café came from his co-owners—Mark Fernandez, Carlo Sandico, Mario Sandico, Aaron Panco and Chrissy Palma—and their love for board games. As of now, Ludo’s shelves are brimming with around 400 games and counting, including Shear Panic, Claustrophobia and Legends of Andor, to name a few.

Armed with their background in marketing and the restaurant industry, Mata and his co-owners’ have established a place for yuppies and families alike to get together over food and games. “[People] are surprised about the kind of games we have, especially in the Philippines,” explains Mata. “Most people just know Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly, Scrabble, and it’s so hard to convince people to go past that.”

Although board game cafés are not new abroad, especially in countries like Canada and the United States, Mata and his co-owners decided to bring the games closer to home because of their novel entertainment value. “We always say, ‘Think of [Ludo] as a bar, but instead of having a band playing, the entertainment we’re offering is board games, and the talent is that we have people who know the game,’” Mata adds.

Their strategy seems to be working out well for them, as Mata talks about how the team behind Ludo finds the growth of the board game scene pleasantly overwhelming. For their café alone, he remarks that there are always reservations made ahead of time. “Other board game cafés, they also have a lot of customers, and it proves that supply has yet to meet demand.”

DITO: Bahay ng Sining

Niche cafés are often created to cater to the needs of a specific community. DITO serves as an art gallery and a theater for stage and film productions because, as owner BJ Crisostomo (BFA TA and CW ‘10), puts it, “young artists rarely have space.”

True enough, the place itself appears to echo the life of an artist. Before making it to the café, visitors are greeted by a large mural of a hunched, ghastly writer of surreal scale. Inside the shop, there are colorful couches, a bookshelf that doubles as a secret door and a mini theater complete with lights and curtains.

Crisostomo says that his café allows his team to meet the “beautiful weirdos” that keep art alive in Marikina, such as art enthusiasts, artists and curators. He even recalls a strange man who insisted on curating DITO’s art. “Some rent the space to do a play or hang paintings,” he explains in a mix of English and Filipino. “This weird guy said, ‘I’m a curator. I curate art and stuff. I want to curate your stuff too!’ So, there, we let him,” he shrugs.

Despite the boom in visitors and theatergoers over the past year for DITO, he still admits he has his struggles, especially when it comes to marketing his café. “I just fear that our location [on J. Molina Street in Marikina] will kill us, because ayun nga, it’s difficult to go here,” he explains.

While Crisostomo may have his concerns, Krizelle Te, an information design junior who has visited the café, thinks that DITO has been doing just fine. “They market in a different way… It’s more of word of mouth than mass advertising, and I like that because it’s intimate,” she says in a mix of English and Filipino.