Coffee, tea and travel
My mom, Pynky Gomez-Magsino, was always a big advocate for travel. I was fresh from university and the first thing she did was send me packing for Europe, where I ended up living for almost seven years — soaking up the culture, touring the continent every chance I got and eventually marrying an Englishman.
I recently returned home and my sister Aischa and I, along with mom, decided that PNKY Café, however charming and quaint it already was, needed a facelift. We conceptualized something a bit more modern but still cozy that would also showcase our family’s strong passion for globe-trotting — a travel-themed café!
The new PNKY Travel Café is littered with mementos from our holidays — photos, postcards, tickets and suitcases! Everything you see printed on the menu, hung on the walls and on display are souvenirs from trips we’ve taken. The suitcases belonged to my grandparents and the antique glass bottles were collected by mom from flea markets all over the world. We also feature a strong lomography vibe as my husband and I are analogue photographers.
The café now features a lovely new menu (trust me, even that alone is worth the visit) serving dishes from breakfast to dinner and all meals in between. The menu depicts famous cities, places, sites and museums. Must-haves for main course is our famous chicken spinach Riviera, beef a la Seine, Le Louvre and Lake Como catch. If you’re not in the mood for something heavy, we also serve hearty, homemade soups (La Tomatina), organic salads (El Secreto), tasty sandwiches (Croque Monsieur), pastas (Ciao Bella Carbonara), and nibbles (Dam Square) just to name a few. For those with a sweet tooth, there’s a yummy array of desserts (In Bruges), and for coffee connoisseurs, there is always a cup waiting for you! There are also an assortment of fresh fruit shakes, frappes and smoothies, slush and teas. There is a selection of bottled wines and a lovely red house wine sold by the glass or carafe.
The café prides itself on having almost everything you need, including a place to stay when visiting the City of Pines PNKY Home Bed & Breakfast, a live-in showroom of PNKY Collection, so everything you sleep on, eat, and sit on is for sale!
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PNKY Travel Café is located at 13 Leonard Wood Rd., Baguio City. Call 074-442-5965, 074-445-5418, log on to www.pnkyhome.com (we now accept direct online booking), www.flickr.com/groups/PNKY, on Facebook it’s PNKYtravelcafe.
