The Corner Cafe in SM City
NOVEMBER 18, 2022
TUGUEGARAO, PH — Opening night at a mall might not seem like something to write home about, but here I am, writing home about it.
In fact, before SM City Tuguegarao opened in November, my friends in Manila texted me excitedly that Tuguegarao was about to get a KFC! We also got a second Starbucks there, only a week after the first one opened at another mall across town. In the States, Starbucks is (not-so-) jokingly a sign of gentrification. Here, I suppose it’s a sign of globalization. Not the only one.
Along with Tuguegarao’s malls, I’ve already spent many hours in malls in Manila, Mandaluyong, Pasay, and Quezon City, and I think the most shocking revelation I had was that there’s a Shake Shack in the Philippines! Not because the Philippines can’t or shouldn’t have Shake Shack, but that I still feel like it’s still a big deal when they open up any non-New York U.S.-based locations!
Anyway, on a Friday night in mid-November in Tuguegarao, no American Thanksgiving in sight, the biggest event of the month was the SM City opening.
On my way there, it took me two tricycles and over an hour to go the 4KM from my apartment to the “new SM.” Traffic can be rough in Tuguegarao, but usually it takes me about 15 to 30 minutes to get anywhere I need to go, even during rush hour. While I was stuck in one tricycle or another, I missed a famous actor's speech, a DJ set, and a fireworks show at the celebration.
Upon arrival, I was hungry, but all of the restaurants were jam packed. My friends and I got spaghetti, fancy hot dogs, egg sandwiches, and coffee (for them)/chocolate frappe (for me) at an oddly under-trafficked cafe tucked in a corner. Along with my uneasiness about Covid, there were multi-hour waiting lists for Jollibee, Boteyju, Peri-Peri, and McDonald’s. Though my friends' hopes were dashed, I wasn’t interested in eating at many of these places anyway, especially the franchises that already have Tuguegarao locations.
Mid-meal, when my friends whipped out some work to do, I was reminded of the time I spent in malls in my youth, getting my favorite drink at Starbucks or Jamba Juice, perusing Hot Topic, judging people at the skating rink, going to the movies, or settling in to do homework.
Admittedly, there’s a queasiness in my heart about signs of the West here, even though I, too, am one such sign. I'm pretty sure Hot Topic hasn’t made it to the Philippines yet (and it’s okay if it never does), and I’m more interested in taste-testing Tuguegarao’s local cafes rather than what was once my signature “tall Double Chocolaty Chip Blended Cream, extra chocolate, extra blended.” That was fifteen years ago.
Now my hometown malls are half empty, or boarded up, or closed down. I didn’t expect to feel their part-suburban, part-metropolitan, entirely consumerist comfort again, at 30, and certainly not halfway around the world, where I thought I might, just might, be escaping the part of the world I came from (even as a Fulbright-NatGeo Fellow). I mean, why are frappes and cafes so popular here anyway, local or no.... Though I wrote this post in mild incredulity, there’s both a gratefulness for the familiarity and a foreboding weight as I list off the brands I recognize so readily, while I can’t quite remember the name of the corner cafe we ducked into that night.