#oarhouse

  One of the last strongholds of Old Bohemian Malate, along with Penguin Café and Hobbit House, Oarhouse first opened its doors in 1977 by retired US NAVY man Chuck Monroe.  Musicians began coming in during their breaks from other bars for the cheap beer and the bumper pool table.  Theater folk began coming in too, through Carrie, who eventually became Chuck’s wife.  Susan Calalay, of the Metropolitan Museum also started coming, and soon the CCP artists followed, dividing their time between Penguin and Oarhouse.  In the mid 80’s Jun Medina’s took it over from Chuck, since Chuck had and Carrie decided to move back to the States.  Jun was the former manager of Channel 9 and so media people began spending time there.  When Jun went back to Channel 9, his son Chino managed the place, bartending later on when bartender Wilson left.  Those were the days I first stepped foot in Oarhouse- my uncle took me there as I sipped juice or soda at the bar some late afternoons and early evenings, getting fed Chino’s baked eggplant (a version of which continued on the menu even after Chino’s time). 

  In 1998, Chino had to shut the doors of Oarhouse (for reasons known to him only) and everything else that took over the space (including a roast duck place and a version of it called Ore House) in the next few years failed miserably.  Finally, in 2004 Nonoy Tan, who loved Oarhouse decided to bring it back- and with him came a lot of the old crowd, including former bartender Wilson who has also been a Malate fixture, having bartended as well in the old Blue Café on Nakpil Street.

  Last December, Oarhouse was about to close again- Nonoy just couldn’t keep it going. The word went out on December 28 that it was Oar’s last night and the old photogs and journalists and bar regulars showed up to at least have one more San Miguel in their haunt.

  A couple of the Oarhouse habitués, also concerned for the loss of Oarhouse, stepped in, and as luck would have it- Nonoy passed them the torch.  Reg Hernandez and Redgie Cinco are the new managers of Oarhouse- and with them stand Ben Razon, who has been in charge of the Oarhouse Blog, and of course, yours truly and other friends who have been putting their time and even manual labor into a bar that we have loved for decades. 

  It is essentially the same place, standing in the exact spot where Chuck Monroe served beer.  It is a tiny place, and we haven’t changed it  much, but bringing new energy yet the old integrity and simple dignity the place had.  It’s gonna take a lot of work, love, and patience, but slowly, I think we can do this.  We’re retaining old favorites in the menu, and we will slowly be adding new things,  Wilson is still the bartender, and we’re eventually going to have acoustic nights.  We shall be serving you the cold beer and food urselves, and we hope to breathe life back into a place which has been a home for many writers, photographers, artists, thinkers. The walls will still hold exhibits- for all photographers, and visual artists.  The eclectic mix of people who have been there and are part of Oarhouse include the late Santi Bose, Miguel Faustman, Bart Guingona, Dodo Lim, Dong Allegre, Ben Razon, Julie Yap Daza, Butch Aldana, even former Congressman Bebot Alvarez (when he was still studying) and of course, Pepito Bosch (to name a tiny few) as well as countless theater people, musicians, journalists, artists, photographers, bankers, students, peace corps volunteers, backpackers, and other Malate bar owners. 

  The Old Malate is dying, Oarhouse is a landmark, and we cannot- should not- let that happen. There is history in those walls, and there is a lot of history that has yet to be written.

  Be a part of it.

  (Thanks to Uncle Dave Limsico, who has been part of the Malate scene forever, and has been there since the first day of Oarhouse in ’77 for sharing his memories with me.)

  Oarhouse re-opens on Friday, January 11, 2008 5pm onwards, but we will be operational on Wednesday, January 9 for our dry run.  Hope to see you there.

  Oarhouse is located at 1803 Mabini St. Malate, Metro Manila (beside the old Hobbit House).

  www.oarhouse.blogspot.com

[email protected]

Start:     Jan 9, '08 5:00pLocation:     Oarhouse, 1803 Mabini St. Malate

To all the folks that dropped by last night at Oarhouse for our dry run, thank you so much! We hope to see you there more.

To those who have yet to visit us, we are open already from 5pm onwards with our Opening Party tomorrow, Friday, 1803 Mabini St. Malate Manila.

Yes, my friends, it has been a busy week, trying to get Oarhouse back up and operational.  And yes, we are open- we have a home for all of you in our little bar, as it has been home for so many of us (refer to Oarhouse history blog).

Without much sleep, we were there early to set up the exhibit and fix the specials for the day- Belgian fries with beer beef stew courtesy of our friendly Belgian, Paul.  Redgie Cinco snuck out of a wedding to finish setting up the panels for the exhibit, pulling off his barong- and armed with his tool box.  Pepito came home a couple of days ago, returned by Boy Yuchengco, who had borrowed him for his altar installation at the Yuchengco museum and forgot to bring Pepito home for Christmas, spending the holidays in his house instead.  Seeing him home, I figured I'd take him out to Oar- (and if you think I've lost my marbles because Pepito is dead- we have a carved statue of his likeness- and for the moment is hanging out at the Oarhouse bar- right next to the tequila:  where the spirits should be?)

It rained a bit and we had a short power outage in the afternoon, but soon after we opened Meralco did one of its classic fuck ups- we lost power for close to three hours.  Well the whole block was out- but still, the people that were there stuck by us and hung out despite the power outage and open bars down the other street.  The Mama (Kelly, Paul's wife) ran out and got candles, some of our regulars (Ben Razon, Dong Alegre, the other Paul, Derek Soriano) found a spot outside by the door, and Reg dug out his ipod speakers so we could have music.  It was nice with the candlelight- just hot.

When the lights came back on- within the hour people started seriously arriving:  Juan and the young photogs in tow, Bahaghari, VJ, and Jake Versoza, with friends; Steve and Jenny Wallace, who brought in Jim, the head of the English department at Brent (who is giving me a list of funk bands to check out).

Our dearest friends came to show support-even from far away QC, a couple even abandoning their own bars for the night (Thank you Eric of Route 196 and Jon of Fandom)- and even bearing gifts (ene, love the presents and to Jon- I promised cold super dry and it was cold!  I love 'Silver' by the way and can't wait to make the hoagies!)  Ebong came with a cake and soon the party was in full swing- Reg can pick the right tunes depending on the crowd.  Yes, we had impromptu dancing on the bar, laughter and conversation and story telling and singing to the music. Ene got other people (that were first time Oarhouse guests) to dance, Andy (The Silence) was happy with Jack Daniel's and the conversation, Katrina was as always fun in purple (and no forgotten bills!), even my sister Marlies and Jerrick came in for a while (malakas ba yung chocotini?), along with scores of people I cannot all name.  Ah, it was one helluva party.

What more can one want from a bar?

I'll tell you:  At one point, someone called out my name, someone I didn't recognize. He introduced himself- Alex Baluyot and said he read my post in regards to Oarhouse and mentioned Pepito.  He met my uncle at that very same bar 20 years ago.  He came because he saw 'Bosch' and wanted to be there for me, the next generation.  Sweet as hell, I was choked up and I pointed towards Pepito's statue and told him, "Pepito is here tonight".

And yes, he was.

You're so right Ben.  That night is dedicated to Pepito Bosch and Santi Bose.

For Ben Razon's photographs of the first part of the night click here.