Subic's Hometown Café Is Home to Breakfast, Coffee, and Stories

The Hometown Café store front. PHOTO BY Henna Yu

Hometown Café

The Garden By Pacific Ace, Rizal Highway corner Aguinaldo Street, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo City, Zambales

Open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday to Sunday

(SPOT.ph) We're sure you've heard it: "What’s your hometown?" or "Anong probinsiya mo?" It’s a go-to small-talk question, especially in a country where most reside or work far away from their hometown. And with how diverse the Philippines is—a country comprising 7,641 islands as of the latest count—it’s no surprise that each of our hometowns have their own story. Likewise, those stories deserve a platform—and a platform Subic Bay’s Hometown Café aims to be.

"Our mission is to tell the stories of our hometown through specialty coffee," shares RG Medestomas, who co-owns the cozy café and dining spot with his siblings and cousin. "We want to put Hometown Café in different locations, and tell the story of these hometowns."

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Hometown Café in Subic

The story of Hometown Café starts with Medestomas’ own home base: Olongapo City. "During the pandemic, the family would all visit their lola here," says Medestomas’ wife Jacque De Borja-Medestomas. "So siyempre, lahat sila magd-drive from Manila, and then we would try to look for coffee in the morning. So we [thought], ‘We’re always here. What if we put up a small coffee shop?’ And that’s how it started."

Hometown Café’s old location was a small coffee shop in the literal sense of the word—a 30-square meter space in Wow World Complex in Subic Bay. "Ideally, since we were just thinking of our family, we intended for the space to just be a grab-and-go [place]," shares De Borja-Medestomas. "But we realized that the Olongapo crowd wants to sit, stay, and actually hang out with friends."

"Definitely, 'yung community na namin yung nagsasabi na ‘I think you’re growing too big [for this] space. Na-outgrowna namin siya.And we [also] wanted to do in-house baking [and have a] kitchen," adds Medestomas.

The group eventually found a bigger space at The Garden by Pacific Ace, just a stone’s throw away from their old spot. And with a new location came an opportunity to rethink what they wanted Hometown Café to mean for themselves and their community.

"We just wanted to serve coffee, period. But I also don’t want to do something just because," shares Medestomas. "I wanted to have a deeper purpose. So we came up with a mission, vision, values, the whole shebang. We played around with the word ‘hometown.’

With a new, more spacious location came the opportunity to redesign Hometown Café’s interiors in a way that reflected their mission of celebrating the different hometowns in the Philippines. As Hometown Café is located in Subic Bay, which was a former U.S. Naval Base, Architect Brian Ver took inspiration from a classic American diner but more subdued. Think earthy and woody tones instead of the usual loud red-and-white diner color palette. Still, there’s no questioning what the interiors are a homage to, thanks to the diner-style booths, soda chairs by the bar, and mid-century modern-ish bar and shelves. The building where Hometown Café now resides also used to house a cinema, a fact celebrated through the marquee-style menu above the bar.

Food at Subic Hometown Café

Their diner-inspired interiors also influenced their menu of all-day breakfast dishes. Now that Hometown Café had space for their own kitchen, they’re able to whip up American diner classics like theChicken & Waffle (P450), which come with ultra-tender waffles, crispy fried chicken, and just a touch of sweet-spiciness from the Carolina Reaper honey. Another diner staple served with a twist is the Bacon & Pancakes (P450)—a complete and comforting breakfast plate with two fluffy buttermilk pancakes, thick-cut bacon, sunny-side up eggs, whipped honey, and apple butter that, when added to the pancakes, will remind you of apple pie.

Of course, Hometown Café would be remiss to not have silog on their menu. All silogs come with a side of smoked baba ganoush, a refreshingly creative palate-cleanser in the midst of punchy flavors from the savory Beef Tapa (P380) with just the right hint of garlic flavor, and the peppery, garlicky Pork Longganisa (P380). Aside from the baba ghanoush, the silog also have garlic rice, atsara, and Hometown Café’s signature vinegar. And in keeping with their goal of championing local suppliers, Medestomas shares that they source their tapaand longganisa from Sambali Beach Farm in Botolan, Zambales.

While not necessarily classic breakfast fare, the Fish and Chips (P400) is also not to be missed, especially with the bright lemon pepper fries, and crisp and juicy beer battered fish.

Drinks at Subic Hometown Café

Coffee is still at the forefront of Hometown Café—aside from the bigger space, Borja-Medestomas shares that they now also have their own roastery, which they credit to the coffee community the team was able to meet both in Subic and in Manila. "I think [the roastery] became possible because other people in the community encouraged us na kaya niyong gawin."

Right now, Hometown Café doesn’t offer Filipino beans yet. They use their own blend of Brazilian beans that they also roast themselves, and rotate beans from a variety of local roasters like Bodega Coffee Roasters and Yardstick for pour-overs—but employing local beans is in the works.

"To be honest it’s hard to find specialty coffee [beans] in the Philippines," says Borje-Medestomas. "[Because] it’s quite hard to produce it. Konti lang 'yung quantity and the demand is so high, and usually naeexport siya. That sounds bad for us, but ‘di talaga siya bad when you think about it kasi it helps the farmers. So we just think of it as lumalakas 'yung Filipino coffee beans all over the world which means the money that [farmers] get can help farms expand, and eventually meet the demand for specialty coffee."

"But eventually." she adds, "We were able to build a relationship with Dream Coffee and Kalsada Coffee, who handle some of the farms here in the Philippines. So sabi namin, sanext harvest,mag-aabang na kami."

Despite not having the Filipino coffee beans they wanted, this does not stop Hometown Café from shining the spotlight on local flavors through coffee. Their Sea Salt Latte (P190/hot, P200/iced) for one uses asin sa buy-ofrom Zambales, their Honey Oat Latte (P200/hot, P210/iced) uses honey from Bataan, and their Vanilla Bean Latte (P210/hot, P220/iced) uses vanilla bean from Sarangani–all creative and tasty ways to introduce these particular hometowns to people who don’t hail from them. "Kinikwento namin na 'yung Sarangani, may vanilla sila, 'yung Zambalesmay salt sila, ganun," explains Medestomas.

Celebrating coffee doesn’t stop with the drinks, however, especially with how welcome the Hometown Café team has been made to feel by the local coffee community. To foster the circle they’ve found, Hometown Coffee would host bar takeovers at their old location, a tradition they plan to continue in their new home. "We would have bar takeovers and coffee tasting with Gio [Visitacion] of The Good Cup Coffee Co., who’s also the 2023 Philippine Barista Champion and Lui [Selorio] of Crema and Cream Coffee Roasters," shares Borje-Medestomas. "It’s a way for Subic people to experience stuff that’s happening in Manila so they are able to taste different kinds of coffee. And we also get to bring baristas from Manila in, and they fall in love with Subic as well."

This might all seem intimidating for a coffee newbie or someone who just wants to have a cuppa on their road trip across Subic, but there’s nothing to fret about, especially with their friendly baristas who are more than open to having a conversation over all things, coffee or not. "I think we’re really lucky to [have found] baristas na sobrang galing nila in making everyone feel at home," shares Medestomas.

"We’ve had regulars come in and say that actually our baristas have added to their experience," adds Medestomas-Borje. "They came for the coffee and stayed for the conversation," finishes Medestomas.

Medestomas and his business partners have big plans for Hometown Café. "We’ve kind of future-proofed Hometown Café," he says. "Eventually, we want to put up branches in other locations, and tell the stories of those hometowns. I’ve been pitching nga to Jacque’s friend na baka pwede sa Ilocos. Like naiimagineko na ano'ng pwedenglook ng Hometown Café Ilocos Sur."

"You won’t expect the same look in every space," adds Medestomas-Borje.

But these are dreams for the far future. Hometown Café Subic Bay still has more than enough stories to tell.

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