Cover Photo: Chuttersnap/Unsplash
Photo: Chuttersnap/Unsplash
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Owner Butz Tenchavez shares how he combines his soft spot for chefs and love for food with his devotion to wine in this Quezon City watering hole
Making my way to Katipunan Avenue, QC from Makati during Friday evening rush hour is its own kind of hell. However, the promise of tacos and wine is a combination that proves too irresistible to ignore. Chef Keith Patrick Curitana (Los Tacos MNL) was slowly but surely test-running dishes for his private dining concept called Sosa during his recently concluded takeover of the diminutive kitchen of Toka Wine (“toka” is the local colloquial word for task or duty, more specifically to a potluck). Here, he served up his best-selling elote and birria tacos, along with some new Mexican comfort food dishes. There was a rich bowl of caldo de camarón; roast chicken breast with a dark molé; and a fun dessert of horchata paleta with salted dulce de leche, among others. He was there upon the invitation of owner Butz Tenchavez for Toka's quarterly Will Host chef series which trains the spotlight on up-and-coming talent. Here, the guest chefs get to serve their dishes to Toka’s wine-loving regulars, even testing and teasing the crowd with developing concepts, like what chef Curitana did for the upcoming Sosa project.
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That particular Friday, Tenchavez busied himself with entertaining guests, refilling glasses and bussing out stemware, making sure that despite the frantic weekend pace and the alcohol-induced din inside his small wine bar, everybody was taken good care of. When the room emptied out a bit between the first and second seatings for the evening, he joined me for a chat about his passion project. Tenchavez started bringing in bottles of quality-price ratio (QPR) wines when he got “frustrated” with the price point of the other local distributors who offer their selections at a much higher rate, since he knows how much they truly cost. “That was when I partnered up with some friends to start Gran Hacienda Wines which focuses on smaller wine producers. Organic, truly QPR wines,” he narrates.
“The wine market in the Philippines is very segmented,” he further explains. “People always bring in cheap, mass-produced wines, then the other half brings in the super expensive ones, like Bordeaux, et cetera. Not a lot were doing the mid-range, QPR wines so we decided to focus on this market.” They offer a selection of old world and new world wines, and almost an equal split of the classic style and the currently-trending natural wines. With our Mexican fare, Tenchavez offered a trio of “natty” wines: a rosé from France, a Spanish verdejo, and a Chilean Syrah. It is easy to distinguish natural wines with their slight effervescence and having a moderately fermented aftertaste, but these wines were deceivingly bright and crisp. “These do not taste like kombucha,” Tenchavez chuckles. He adds: “We do not favour a particular country or grape. We’re looking for nice acidity, freshness, and drinkability. Not so oaky. It is about giving people what they want.”
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He is familiar with most of the people coming in, either occupying the reserved tables with friends or grabbing a stool at the bar to chat up the other neighbourhood winos. While these Will Host events are meant to keep the regulars entertained and attract new guests too, it reflects the owners own passion for great food. At the same time, what makes it unique is it provides a platform for these newer chefs, acting as an incubator for fresh talent. Tenchavez said he got the idea from a Parisian bar called Early June that invites guest chefs for short stints in their kitchen that will prepare dishes to pair well with their wines. “For Gran Hacienda wines, we also like working with restaurants that are chef-driven,” he points out. “Toyo (Eatery), Metiz, of course Hapag, Blackbird... they are all chef-driven.”
Even on regular days, Tenchavez offers a small yet thoughtfully curated menu of wine-compatible plates. “I do not like calling them ‘small plates’ because they really are sharing platters,” Tenchavez candidly says. He takes pride in the quality of his food— deli meats are sliced thinly only upon order, and their premium cheeses include French Comté and Roquefort. A well-constructed cheeseburger is on the menu for those looking for something hearty and quick, and they also have steak nights that encourage guests to imbibe their full-bodied reds. They spend on good stemware here, which shows how invested Tenchavez is in delivering the best possible experience for him and his guests.
While quaint and casual, “inspired by the smaller wine bars of Porto, Madrid, and Paris,” Toka takes pride in what they offer, and there seems to be nothing on both the food and wine menu that Tenchavez will not serve to his discerning family of foodies. “World-class” might seem cliché and gauche, but this wine bar can truly comfortably sit amongst those found in the aforementioned cosmopolitan cities. Driving to Quezon City from Makati might usually feel like punishment, but this time, I felt like I was heavily rewarded.
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Jaclyn Clemente Koppe is a food and lifestyle writer, as well as a consultant to some of the country’s beloved food and beverage brands. Her passion for food and drink is only surpassed by her devotion to her family, most especially to her soulmate, Pepa the poodle.
