Eric and Nestlie Hermes
Although we may make plans and even set goals, there’s always the small chance that things will end up differently from what we’d hoped for and life inevitably takes a turn, an unexpected curve. Sometimes a plan is accelerated, and we dive right into a new adventure.
When Nestlie Hermes and her husband Eric retired from their high-profile jobs—she as digital marketing and graphics consultant and he as executive chef at the Ritz Carlton, Bahrain—they decided to go back to the Philippines. Their relocation was smoothed over by a support network of extended family and old friends giving them a pleasant push to make their next move. After a year and a half and many exploratory trips around the archipelago, they decided to pull up stakes in Manila and move to the town of Coron, a small thriving municipality in the island of Busuanga, Palawan.
Out of the blue, Nestlie called me to tell me they were shipping all of their belongings to Coron, trading big city living for a life less harried.
I thought to myself: What a momentous decision, what a leap of faith! After living and working in some of the most culturally diverse and cosmopolitan cities of the world, this act was going to be different—a culinary migration.
Bento Cake
Mini celebration cakes: ‘Ube,’ three layer ‘ube’ sponge with ‘ube’ cream in between and ‘ube’ cream cheese frosting; Mango, three-layer butter cake with mango cream in between, with mango butter cream frosting; and Red Velvet, three layers of classic southern red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting
Baguettes and Temptation Cookies (popular item for ‘pasalubong’), signature cookie dough with dark chocolate chunks, chocolate-covered pretzels, and chunks of Cloud Nine candy bar.
Pork Floss Buns
A closer look at the Temptation Cookies
After living and working in some of the most culturally diverse and cosmopolitan cities of the world, this act was going to be different
Nestlie recalls, “When we moved back to the Philippines and knew that there was a the possibility we would be moving to an island somewhere, we had conceived our culinary point of view as a crossroad of food, people, and place with a mission to support family-run farms and small businesses, promote sustainability whenever we can, and champion the use of local Philippine-made products and ingredients. We wanted to share our marketing skills and culinary training to benefit others.”
Eric and Nestlie Hermes on the main boulevard in Coron town
After finding a place a few minutes away from the town proper of Coron, Eric and Nestlie set out to work. Initially, they were baking bread and raising some greens and herbs for themselves; eventually they began supplying restaurants and hotels. With both their industry credentials, they got a consulting agreement for one of the hotels in the city. This kept them busy in a happy and unruffled way, and allowed them to start engaging with the local community. But just as they had achieved a nice work- life rhythm of semi-retirement, the COVID pandemic struck.
Chowline’s inviting counter
Nestlie Hermes, Chef Charisse, Chef Eric Hermes, and Jonalyn
Eric recalled how their new lifestyle came to a halt. “A store front was far from our minds when we moved to Coron. In 2019, we started supplying bread and fresh basil to some of the establishments in town. We liked having control of our own time and working from our own home, where stress was non-existent.”
Fast forward to the pandemic, with its uncertainties and scenarios of impending gloom. What now? But even as all the best laid plans take a turn, opportunities still came about in the face of temporary lockdowns, government regulations, and altered consumer demands. You had to think out of the box to live with the new reality.
Chowline was conceived.
Chowline’s participation of stakeholders and members of CATE (Calamianes Association of Tourism Enterprises) during the Coron Town Fiesta Parade
We took a jab at it and said, “Let’s do it, we’ve got nothing to lose,” Nestlie says. “If it doesn’t work, then we pack up and go home and start again. So with P300,000 and the equipment that we already owned, we opened our doors on Sept. 11, 2021. Our life has been a series of leaps of faith, to explore…to believe, to have faith because, we have always loved a good adventure.”
This was 2021 and the pandemic was upending lives globally, Chowline’s business model had to be aligned with the new reality characterized by shorter value chains, remote work, social distancing, consumer hesitancy and introspection, plus enhanced technology use.
The pandemic changed the way people ate and fueled the demand for ordering online. On-demand food delivery was having its brightest moment, and Chowline had to meet this quick shift in demand.
The usual way to think about restaurants would be envisioning a seating area next to a kitchen. However, restaurants are kitchens whose output can be delivered to customers in a number of ways, such as eat-in, take-out, and delivery. Chowline, located within a small complex of restaurants and bars with communal seating sections, was a good fit. Except for a few stools one can pull up to view the open kitchen, it has no exclusive seating area. All this time it ran on happy hands, good thoughts, deliveries, takeouts and pickups.
At the helm of their tiny kitchen, the Cordon Bleu-schooled Eric implements the extensive service culture and culinary expertise that he learned over the years working for international hotel chains. He presents a menu of elevated yet familiar and approachable fare: pizzas, burgers, bagels. And yes, the secret is out, he bakes the crusty baguettes that other restaurants and dining places in Coron put on their tables.
Eric adds, “We treat everybody equally, we do not look at how our customers are dressed, where they may be from, but instead we look at ways of how we can serve them and have them enjoy our food. I wanted a concept that was easy to manage with little overhead, so we had food trucks in mind. I thought about Roy Choi and Paul Qui, some great chefs who operated food trucks in the States. They have little overhead and you’d be surprised at what foodie goodness comes out of those small rolling kitchens and that was part of our vision for Chowline. Like our lasagna may come in a paper casserole deep plate but we make the pasta, the sauces and the ricotta cheese ourselves. Who would have thought that an awesome dish could come out of a tiny kitchen.”
Chowline’s menu incorporates Western cooking techniques, combining the flavors of the South and Southwestern United States with Filipino flavor highlights. The dishes are easy to make, convenient to eat and have a no-nonsense vibe associated with them. Burgers, sandwiches and muffins occupy a crucial position in American cuisine. Eric puts a spin on them with local ingredients so much so that their most beloved customers love a good cross section of their products.
“Some come specifically for our breads, bagels, cinnamon rolls, cookies, pizza—some like it toasty dark and some on the lighter side, lasagna and of course, the Chori burger. There are some who just come for the lemonade and grape juice that we make fresh. There are a few who are more willing to try new things on their pizzas, like our Sisig pizza, BBQ sauce, basil pesto on the Margherita instead of basil leaves and homemade ricotta cheese on the Four Cheese.
“Nowadays we have been working on Activated Charcoal, Spirulina, Coconut Sugar, Coconut Flour and Rye, to name a few. What inspires us the most is our customers, we are always thinking of different ways to challenge the palate of those who choose to dine with us.
“As a chef I have made it a point to try and do everything from scratch and this is what we do at Chowline. We make almost every element that goes into a dish, in our kitchen,” he adds
The newest member of the small kitchen brigade that Chef Eric oversees is a young architecture undergraduate-turned-pastry chef, Charisse Nicafort. The addition of a pastry chef was inevitable, to take on extra business and expand the product line. With Charisse on board, Chowline has added mini celebration cakes and new pastries to the product line and people are liking the size and variety that the smaller cakes provide. A scrumptious-size pivot it turned out to be!
Chowline has made it a point to sell bottled water, proceeds of which go to building classrooms in rural areas. They sell coconut water which helps small coconut farming communities by giving part of the sales proceeds to the cooperatives. They also carry a line of juices called “Locally.”.Unique local flavors of fruits like Guava, Guyabano, Dalandan and Mango are given their due.
Since this is primarily a take-out and delivery establishment, most of the packaging they use are made from biodegradable materials. They promote sustainability by controlling food waste, making most, if not all, of their ingredients from scratch and shopping local as much as they possibly can.
Chowline is proof that craft doesn’t have to happen in a fancy restaurant in a big city where work is a grind every single day, where chefs are stars with inflated egos and shortcut practices are plenty. Today it’s what’s fresh, creative, delicious not elaborate, and above all honest and nourishing. Good food for themselves who make it and for the people they feed. With more people going out to eat now and doing things in person, Chowline may have to consider its physical model by adding some seats.
For the meantime, mobile ordering and takeouts will continue to grow because habits formed are powerful and likely to carry through into our post pandemic future, even while eager consumers return to dining in restaurants.
It’s a welcome direction for everyone.
Chowline, 12 Real Street, B Complex, Barangay 2, Coron, Palawan
