MANILA House renewed their 10-year lease for their space at Bonifacio Global City’s (BGC) Seven/NEO building on 5th Ave., and has also announced a renovation.
The exclusive club (Manila House chair shipping heiress Doris Magsaysay Ho didn’t quite answer the question when asked about the membership fees) houses an all-day dining lounge called Bonifacio Lounge, a chic Filipino restaurant called Anahaw, The Grill (serving A5 Wagyu), as well as the Avenue Bar; among other amenities, according to their membership kit.
“It still looks exciting and fun, right?,” said Ms. Ho during an interview with BusinessWorld on Feb. 12 at the club. “I think we saw that the club was actually really loved by the members, and we just wanted to make sure that the members feel that there was longevity in what they’re investing in.”
As for the renovation (which had already begun; Ms. Ho told us to check the deck), slated to be finished by the middle of this year, she said, “We learned a lot in the first few years. We saw what sticks; what doesn’t.” She pointed to the bar: “This bar, we really want to make it a great music space, and we need it to be bigger.”
The club was founded in 2017, with a membership fee rumored to be in the six-digit range.
Ms. Ho discussed the advantages of being a member of the club, and how the club has changed the city’s landscape. “When I come here, sometimes I just come here and I sit by myself and work, right? It’s not so easy to do that in a hotel lobby. You can feel as if it’s my home — an extension of my home. It allows you to have service while you’re at it. It’s sort of a home away from home. I think that’s one of the advantages of this place.”
As for the club’s restaurants: “We’re continuously changing. Always, always changing. What we hope, for example, for Filipino cuisine is to be a place where you can really have kind of a more elevated Filipino experience.”
She also addressed the rumors of expanding to another city: “Let’s see if we can get this done perfect,” she said, referring to the current BGC club. “Maybe. People always say maybe in Cebu, or some other place. We’re so lucky because we found this lovely spot,” she said.
“It’s got to have a unique selling proposition… Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a club in a beautiful heritage site? But we love to tear everything down.”
Apart from the food and the view, it’s the exclusivity and privacy that Manila House offers best. BusinessWorld discussed a story about a member who chose to have their coffee at the club, instead of being gawked at a cafe. “That’s true,” said Ms. Ho.
“But we want everybody to feel like we really have a lot of people from different sectors of society,” Ms. Ho said. “We tend to kind of separate from each other: the business sector, the social sector, the performing arts… we like the idea that everybody feels comfortable in this space. It’s a neutral space.
“We have to learn from each other. Sometimes we think we know everything, iyun pala hindi,” she said.
Manila House is located on the 8th Floor of Seven/NEO Building, 5th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City. — Joseph L. Garcia