Earth Café

Welcome to Earth Café

     
     After the feast for our eyes at Pinto Art Museum, it was now time for a feast for our tummies! We're ready to try Earth Café's organic dishes after walking around the vast galleries. We're so happy that we were able to dine at Earth Café before it closed.

Garden Setting

Stone Pathway

      Earth Café, owned by Chef Ricci and Ms. Irene of Laya, is inside Pinto Art Museum. Like at Laya, they serve organic dishes with fresh herbs as well as beverages. It is in the middle of a garden which is true to its name. You become one with the earth with the food you eat and where you eat, surrounded by lush trees and bushes, colorful flowers and a beautiful garden landscape.

More Art :p

Al Fresco Dining

     Earth Café has an outdoor kitchen, as well as seating by the garden. There are also seats inside the gallery for those who want to dine while appreciating the beauty of the displays. Inside the gallery are paintings, sculptures, and works of art using various media.

Pinto Art Museum

Entrance to Pinto Art Museum

     It was raining that day, there's a storm even, but that didn't stop us from our agenda that day-- to visit the Pinto Art Museum in Antipolo. Our travel to Pinto Art Museum (PAM) reminded us of when we went to Laya a year ago and that was one memorable trip! The museum collects a fee of 100php for adults and 50php for children. We were then asked to log in and PAM brochures were given to us.

Brochures

Little church

     Several decades of devotion to art and culture has led to this haven of creativity. It took almost two years to plan, construct and organize the project. Finally on December 5, 2010, Pinto Art Museum (PAM) formally opens its doors to the general public. It is nestled within the confines of the Silangan Gardens. - from Pinto Art Museum's brochure

Simple words and Simple Deeds: 
No to Plastic

     After getting our brochures, we then headed out to the First Gallery. The glass jars with random things from the Marikina flood caught our attention. It was somehow a sad reminder of the alarming, traumatic and catastrophic event that happened during Ondoy -- that day should've taught us to be more aware of our environment, to be more caring and considerate to Mother Nature.

First gallery

     The first gallery we went into was not too big, it even looked like a house in Greece, with the white plastered walls and simple lay out. There was a small area up the stairs where more works of art are displayed. There was an open space with a small fountain and an archway that led to another room.

Laya: Personal Dining Experience

     For our 41st monthsary last September 2010, we dined at Laya in Antipolo. It is Chef Ricci and Ms. Irene's home which they gladly shared to others, along with Chef's masterful skills in the kitchen.

Welcome to Laya

     Last week, we received a message from Laya, saying that they will be bidding farewell to their culinary journey here in the Philippines. Their goodbye and thank you letter can be found in their Multiply site -- http://layapersonaldining.multiply.com/journal/item/47/Goodbye_and_thank_you.

     We dedicate this blog to them, for giving us such a wonderful, one-of-a-kind dining experience! They would be closing Laya and their newly opened Earth Cafe at Pinto Museum, also in Antipolo, by the end of July and would be starting a new chapter in their lives. We'd like to share our unforgettable day at Laya as a way to let them know how much we appreciate them for their kindness, hospitality and especially the food they shared with us! :)

Contact information

     It is through Multiply that we have come to know about Laya - and boy were we excited to go there! It's our first time to have a kind of formal dining where a 6-course meal is served and introduced by the chef himself! It really was a wonderful feeling! Each dish would be brought to us and Chef Ricci would proudly describe what he made for us.

Serenity

     LAYA is a private kitchen, hidden in hilly Antipolo where we seek to give each of our guests a unique, private and personal dining experience all their own.

     Once you enter the gate, you would climb up cobblestone steps and see the facade of their home, an open balcony where the guests get to taste Chef Ricci's Thai-inspired creations. They have a pool and a cabana where you can relax and enjoy the sun. To the side is a small bar where they can have snacks and savor drinks. :)