Four entrepreneurial gents launch bar-lounge venture

CEBU, Philippines - Four Cebuano gentlemen pooled their resources together to start off a series of luxury destination businesses in Cebu, banking on the maturing nightlife and lifestyle lounge sectors.

Led by world famed industrial designer Kenneth Cobonpue, together with coffee connoisseur Glenn Soco, and young entrepreneurs Paco Rodriguez, and J. Michael Yu, the group established the Cebu Life Style Inc., and recently opened its flagship project, called Morals & Malice.

Morals & Malice, located adjacent to Tinderbox, is a premier lounge and bar destination where art meets alcohol. It is a destination composed of two visually arresting spaces, featuring distinct identities that will bring both the patron's experience and the Cebuano's cosmopolitan lifestyle.

Morals is a lounge that highlights craft coffee cocktails complemented by an all-day brunch menu, while Malice is a bar that advocates a craft culture in Cebu.

These entrepreneurial gentlemen also pioneer the introduction of "craft cocktails" and "craft coffee cocktails" or hand-crafted coffee drinks in Cebu.

Craft cocktails, are cocktails where every element is handmade or tailored specifically to the drink.

Soco, who sits as the director for the company, said that the opening of Malice & Morals is just the start of series of lifestyle and lounge destination projects that will be invested by the company, providing Cebu a true feel of world-class metropolitan lifestyle.

"We will invest on entertainment businesses that will address the changing lifestyle of Cebuanos," said Soco, hinting that the company aims to establish chain of lifestyle nightlife joints and elite cafe lounges in the few years.

Cobonpue, on the other hand said that Malice & Morals will showcase his exclusive design creations with the interiors, making both the coffee lounge (Moral) and the bar (Malice), not just a lifestyle "hide-away," but a destination that tourists must include in their travel schedules–when in Cebu.

"Morals and Malice was created out of personal experiences we've each had abroad which we wanted to bring to Cebu, including a widely-practiced craft cocktail culture, while keeping in touch with our Cebuano roots. This we do by making use of locally sourced and available ingredients in all our specialty drinks, including house infusions, not usually found in others," said Rodriguez. — (FREEMAN)