Where Food Meets Art: Now Now Canteen's Inspiring Collaborations Redefine Dining
It's hard to know what to expect upon arriving at the doorstep of Now Now Canteen, a seemingly out-of-place restaurant on the corner of Esteban and Calbayog Streets, just a few steps from an abandoned lot with overgrown grass surrounded by an unfinished wall of hollow blocks. I even got there by tricycle, which speaks to its location in a nondescript residential area in Mandaluyong. And yet, Now Now Canteen's concept is anything but uninteresting.
The dining space imbibes an experimental, genre-bending experience that's big on collaborations. Case in point: reNOWn, its cultural incubation and artist residency program that's dedicated to exploring the intersection of gastronomy and contemporary art in whatever form. The inaugural edition, a seven-course degustation featuring the art and visual language of Isabel Reyes Santos, ran with six public dates (with two seatings each) from May 21 to 30—less than a year after Now Now Canteen's soft opening in September 2024. I got to try the whole thing on the second-to-last day, and it already showed great promise of what reNOWn could become.
"There will be a lot of cross-disciplinary collabs in the coming months and years," Patrick de Veyra, Head Curator, tells Esquire Philippines.
Visual artist Isabel Reyes Santos in the kitchen of Now Now Canteen
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Conversations and Collaboration at Now Now Canteen
"reNOWn started—like most good things do—as a conversation," de Veyra recalls. And like many conversations among artists, dreamers, and visionaries, his dialogues with Now Now Canteen co-owner Bryan Kong led to one thing after the other.
"Last year, Bryan Kong and I found ourselves talking a lot. About art, about food, about where our practices were heading. We’ve known each other since we were four or five—grew up together—so there’s a shorthand between us, a kind of intuitive trust," he tells about Kong, who, like him, is a multi-hyphenated artist. "[He's the] creative force behind Now Now Canteen, but he’s also a percussionist for Taken by Cars, a travel photographer, and a restaurateur. I’m a studio artist, writer, curator, and sometimes brand strategist. We’ve always moved through different worlds, sometimes parallel, sometimes intersecting."
Then, they came up with reNOWn. While the project is "not interested in rigid definitions," as de Veyra pointed out, it's obviously a play on the restaurant's name. It's current (as in now), and honored (as in renowned), maybe.
It's "not a fixed idea, more of a space. Something open, porous." It's "a place where creative work across disciplines can happen organically. Where artists, thinkers, and makers can collaborate without having to flatten themselves into just one thing," de Veyra adds.
It's the perfect project for both Kong and de Veyra, who "both live in the in-betweens—those soft spots where things overlap, collide, or quietly align. reNOWn is about making room for that. For experimentation, for risk, for conversation that doesn’t have to resolve into a product right away."
De Veyra continues: "It's a space shaped by intuition, context, and trust. Not just for cross-disciplinary work, but for cross-sensibility work. Whatever that might mean."
The People Behind Now Now Canteen
Aside from the tasting menu, Now Now Canteen also maintains a regular menu for brunch and dinner, with curious dishes ranging from the Tortang Talong Okonomiyaki to the Pesto Ice Cream. Fermented ingredients are at its forefront, a recognition of Asia's deeply rooted tradition of preservation and flavor development. The techniques and concepts that come with every dish are a showcase of the knowledge of the people behind it.
"What’s particularly inspiring is how the four co-founders of Now Now Canteen have managed to build something deeply meaningful across geographic distances. Our executive chef, Mateusz Luczaj, and pastry chef, Lisane Luczaj—both based in Warsaw—have been actively collaborating with the Manila team. They’re even considering spending half the year in Manila moving forward, just to help ensure that Now Now Canteen and its programs are sustained with care and continuity," explains de Veyra.
Chef Kelvin Pundavela shows the translucency of the crystal bread highlighted in one of the courses for the Isabel Reyes Santos tasting menu.
In addition, Bryan (as Director of Fermentation) and Maxine (as Director of Brand and Culture) are "really two peas in a pod." De Veyra described how their complementary approach, one in ideas and one in execution, is a "real one-two punch."
"I work closely with them, and I genuinely appreciate the kind of energy and dynamism they bring as a couple. What’s striking is how seamlessly they move between being visionaries and builders. You get the sense that this—what they do—isn’t just work for them. It’s built into their DNA as partners, both in life and in practice."
Isabel Reyes Santos in her studio
reNOWn x Isabel Reyes Santos
The collaboration with Santos, according to de Veyra, is the result of two early sessions, "day zeros," as he said. These experiments were "charged and open-ended by design" and all about "presence, perspective, and seeing what might take root."
Santos, on the first day zero, was joined by Idan Cruz, Chef Kelvin Pundavela, Bryan, and Maxine. The second session was participated in by other contemporary artists as well as their executive chef, who flew in from Warsaw.
After the no-pressure series of experimentations, the curatorial team—composed of de Veyra, Bryan and Maxine, and Zoilo Recto—and the gastronomy team—composed of Pundavela, Mateusz and Lisane, and Keona Liuson—came up with a seven-course tasting menu that beautifully reflects Santos' creative practice, one that heavily involves iconography from Western popular culture. This is immediately obvious in the deconstructed wooden puzzle pieces laid out on steel tables of Now Now Canteen. "The reconstruction of fragments are projections of my anxieties, regarding the societal gaze historically set on women by a patriarchal system," Santos says in her artist statement.
Likewise, icons from ‘40s- and ‘50s-era advertisements and comic books were strewn all over the open kitchen's windows while a tapestry of prints sewn together is hung in the middle of Now Now Canteen. The restaurant's bare cement finish allows the artist's eclectic mix of imagery to be under the spotlight, maybe even literally, as the interiors also actually use accent lighting that is similar to the ones in art galleries and museums. Santos' medium of fiber art is further shared in the table napkins, where the day's menu is printed on, as well as the artist's original printed fabric given to diners as gifts.
Three bite-sized dishes start off the degustation: Puffed Pasta, Capesanto Sando, and Frutti de Mare—meant to be tasted in that order.
Puffed Pasta
The first antipasto, a pasta pillow, almost melts in the mouth to reveal a rich filling of mushroom taro cream. The saltiness of the cream perfectly complements the calmness of the second antipasto: a small Japanese sandwich of katsu scallop, garlic and dill aioli, lumpfish caviar. Only to be taken by surprise, yet again, by capsicum from the smoked pepper added to the thin streak of octopus heads and shrimp that is hidden in the layers of potato pave of the third plate.
Santos' penchant for colors and combinations is seen in the Pear Salad: a refreshing mix of oakleaf, mizuna, ginger ponzu, lotus chips, pear, and hibiscus pickle.
Pear Salad
Swordfish Crudo
Yet another reflection of the artist's technique in layering is the Swordfish Crudo, with a delicate dashi crystal bread, meant to be handled with care. The savory soy-marinated swordfish is tempered by the refreshing and citrusy hints of cucumber, ponkan gel, and preserved lemons.
The fourth dish arrived in a bowl covered with a square piece of cloth, a nod to Santos' fabric art. At the center is the Halibut, surrounded by edamame, and enriching its subtle taste are the ikura and amazake caper sauce.
Halibut
The reNOWn x Isabel Reyes Santos palate cleanser is a cup of mushroom tofu, wakame, and tomato dashi, representing the artist's love for warm broth. This prepares the way for the heavy-on-the-stomach Gyutan Lasagna, which comprises three patchwork sheets laid over diced beef tongue flavored with curry sauce, black garlic cheese, nori pesto, and papaya chutney. Probably the most obvious representation of Santos' visual language, it almost looks like the tapestry creations that the artist is most known for.
Gyutan Lasagna
Strawberry Hiyayakko
The experience ends with the Strawberry Hiyayakko, a piece of sweet tofu drowned in kombucha strawberry, intensely flavored with beetroot molasses and sumac togarashi, and designed with deconstructed lumpia wrapper-like crisps.
Much like Santos' practice, the seven-course tasting menu (P5,500) is a recombination of what is natural, while still maintaining some structural forms in an ironic effort to deconstruct the norms.
Now Now Canteen is at 497-C Rosa Building, Calbayog corner Esteban Street, Mandaluyong City. It is open from Wednesday to Friday, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.; and from Saturday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
