Baguio Insider

The post title should have been “Where to Go in Baguio for Food and Drink with Internet Connection in a Place that Allows Smoking During a Power Outage at Night.”

As it happens, when I am redesigning www.gobaguio.com pages or working on a new project (which is what I have been doing for the past few weeks), I sleep for about 2-3 hours and work for about 6 more, and the cycle goes on until I have accomplished what I have set out to do.

So you can imagine how upset I was to wake up at 1:00 am just when the power went out, hungry because I missed my usual 10:00 pm dinner (I had lunch at 5pm), with the internet connection off, of course, knowing that my laptop battery will last just over 2 more hours. In Baguio, when the lights go off and do not come back on after a few minutes, with clear skies all day and no storms in the offing, you know it’s probably an announced power outage (you failed to read about in the weekly papers) that will last all night.

How was BENECO to know that I would be awake and wanting to get some work done at 1am?

So the question was where can we go where to can eat, smoke and work at the same time — a place that was not under the same power grid as my house?

Brilliant thought: ZOLA at the Patria de Baguio building on Session Road.

ZOLA is open 24 hours, and at the wee hours of the morning has small groups of students drinking beer (yup the CICM priest-landlords have allowed the sale of beer in the premises, something that they were iffy about when Songs - everyone’s favorite music bar - was uber-popular late 80s-early 90s), listening to reasonably loud music, ordering cheap, decent food with very few items on the menu above Php100 pesos to cater to Baguio’s huge student population.

First items you would see on the menu will be pizza, 6″”-16″ inch, and of course the large pizzas are priced over Php100.00 because they are for sharing, although the smallest ones are all below Php100.00.

As we arrived, Nico asked, “Do you have internet?” Waiter answers, “As long as you order a minimum of Php100.00 each it’s free!”

Most of Zola is all “boothed” up , which is nice , with padded seats, reasonably large tables where you can work and eat at the same time. Best thing about it? Nothing seedy about the place — well lit, smoking allowed. The crowd is a little loud tonight, with pretty, sexy young women in mini skirts (about 18, I suppose) talking trash in the next table, being “tough women of the world.” We had chosen the most isolated booth in the farthest corner of the place because there were two sockets on the wall where we could charge our laptops, and they ha to sit right beside us!

By the way, there is no charge for using their electricity sockets to keep the laptops running. Fantastic!

So between the two of us, Nico and I ordered up a storm:

1. Cheese Sticks with Honey-Mustard Dip, Php98

2. Thai Rice, much like the classic Bagoong Rice in Thai restaurants sans the green mango strips, Php65

3. Sizzling Liempo, that came with gravy & a cup of white rice, Php65

4. Mango Tango, a dessert for Nico with mangoes, cream, graham crackers & chocolate sauce, Php65.

5. Coke Light (their vendo machine does not offer Coke Zero yet), @Php28, we had three total

6. Another order of Sizzling Liempo (pulutan style, with lots of carrots and chopped Baguio beans) because Nico decided to have dinner, too).

7. I wanted to try the Water Chestnut and Jackfruit Turon because it sounded interesting, just Php45, but it was not available so I ordered the Mango Crepe with Vanilla Ice Cream (it was more crepe than mango though), Php65.

Nico remembered to bring his headset along and did not have to listen to all the noise (it’s a happy place, and no signs of rowdiness today, an early Wednesday morning) but I got to eavesdrop on “Nung high school ako…” “Hahaha, yung classmate ko…,” “Sigue na, order na rin tayo ng pagkain…” (When I was in high school” “Hahaha, my classmate” “Come on, let’s order some food, too”)

We were the oldest folks in the room, the only beerless ones (San Miguel Light beer is priced at Php39), with smokes, soda and laptops. One thing I can say for the yosi-kadiri generation, they can drink beer all night without cigarettes! Later, an old gent walks in alone, and suddenly I’m not the most ancient in the room.

Nico’s surfing the web and says “Did you know that the Philippines does not have serial killers? He’s on Wikipedia and of all keywords to search on he did “List of Serial Killers by Country.” The United States and the United Kingdom are the WINNERS!

“Oh, there’s a Filipino in America,” he says, “Andrew Cunanan who murdered Gianni Versace” “His mother was white, his father Filipino — must be the white side of him!”

A Baguio-boy, Nico is into Dungeons and Dragons, loves movies like Blade & Underworld, table tennis, cars, gaming, and despite his penchant for dark topics, is really full of light!

There are TV monitors and large, ceiling-mounted airconditioners that are off. It’s reasonably chilly tonight but I’m sure Session Road restaurants can get warm during the day, especially if they’re full! There is nothing in this busy street that will provide natural ventilation or shade. The nice thing about Session Road is that it’s not flat, that’s why it is not unbearable during the day. So it’s good to know that the Zola owners have made provisions for the comfort of their guests, in case it gets warm on Session Road during the day.

In the next table, a man who has joined the pretty young women turns on the TV monitor and puts it on Animal Planet. Now another man, who turns out to be the security guard, comes from nowhere, pulls up a chair and watches the silent Animal Planet show beside us. Later on, we interview him, and he interviews us right back. Maybe he was wondering who these two aliens were who kept taking photos of the place and food. We certainly were not regular customers.

And at this time of night, another wonderful thing about Zola is — available parking on Session Road!

RARE RESTAURANT REVIEW by Lisa:

Zola is a well-located, nicely-lit place with a good selection of food (pizza, pasta, sandwiches, desserts, coffee & smoothies, breakfast items), super reasonably priced. Our total bill was Php502.00! No service charge. Come on, tip the staff well, they were pretty attentive, and did not make mistakes.

I appreciate it as a homegrown hangout that where one can eat, drink, smoke and surf, the last two being the most important. The desperate woman I was would have accepted sucky, expensive food but hey, Zola was nothing like that at all!

As for the service, well there are about 30 customers in the room currently and about 5 wait staff on duty, it was easy to hail a server. The food came out of the kitchen reasonably fast, and one can tell that they paid good attention to presentation.

More than three hours after the lights went off, we are told they were back on at home — and we’re still here!

When I come back next time, I will try the Taal Rice, tinapa and adobo flakes with chopped red egg, Php55! Sounds interesting — and maybe that water chestnut and langka turon.

TIMELY, TRENDY, TRAVELER TIP:

For Baguio visitors, I recommend Zola as a place to go to, especially at night, to take advantage of its operating hours, too. Your other choices on Session Road would be Pizza Volante, 456 Restaurant or Chow King. Zola is right now the only one that offers internet access. Again, the food selections are good, prices are cheap, place is well-located and nicely-lit. Beer is available, smoking allowed inside. Although there are no designated areas for smokers, it’s well ventilated and large enough for you to have a choice of tables near or away from smokers. If you’re a coffee drinker, brewed concoctions are available too, as well as smoothies.

To get there. From the top of Session Road, go down a block, and you’ll see it immediately at the ground floor corner of the Patria de Baguio building. Across the street is one of three 7-11’s on Session Road. Right now there’s a rerouting of Baguio traffic so if you’re approaching Session Road from the top, veer to the right of the Post Office, when you see Baguio Cathedral turn left immediately and you will see it at the end of a short block. Turn right to Session Road and get the first immediate parking slot.

And for more information on the City of Pines, please check out GoBaguio! Your Complete Guide to Baguio City, Philippines and Travel Tips for Baguio Visitors.