Cold Drinks and Rush Works: Moments in Café D. Luffy

Yesterday I was anxious because supposedly today is the schedule for our RRL presentation. We already collected a considerable amount of literature sources and studies, and the only thing we lacked at that moment was our PowerPoint presentation. I knew we wouldn’t finish it if we leave it all for afternoon, so I decided to start making our ppt early in the morning. It’s almost noon and there’s still no news from my groupmates about our initial plan to meet up in a certain café in Naga. I’m not familiar with it because I’m not fond of eating out often, and if I did I prolly did it because my friends or family asked me. So yeah, I was hesitant to meet them in that café that afternoon.

However, when I heard the name of the café, my interest got piqued because I’m definitely a nakama! And so, when noon struck, I started preparing and doing my chores so that I could go immediately later. It wasn’t raining that time, but there was quite a drizzle, and as indecisive as I can be, I again hesitated if I should push through the meet-up.

Nevertheless, after minutes of pondering and weighing my options, I decided that I should go. There isn’t much traffic at the time, so I arrived much earlier than I intended to. Our initial meeting place wasn’t in the café itself because we wanted to go in together; that’s why we settled for waiting in the plaza first. After almost an hour of waiting, we’re finally complete and so we made our way to the grand line—I mean Café de Luffy!

That Sunday, Naga City celebrated their Sinulog—so the day after that, when we checked inside their café, they still hadn’t prepared it yet. Supposedly they are to open at 11:00 in the morning but because of Sinulog festivity the night before, I think they extended their operating hours. That’s why when we got there, they were still preparing, and we were about to just go back to the plaza, but thankfully the staff said we could stay inside.

The staff was pretty friendly, and when we went in, familiar posters greeted me. Several One Piece wanted posters were displayed on the wall, and there is also other One Piece stuff, like their jolly roger flag on the counter and also some stickers. Even though it has Luffy in its café name, the café itself isn’t heavily One Piece themed. I think they tone it down because not all people can relate to the theme, which is kinda just fine…

Ok, ok…so maybe I was quite dispirited because if you remove the One Piece posters, stickers, and jolly roger there, it would totally look like a generic aesthetic café. It’s not that I don’t like that kind café, but it’s just I expect that it would be different and would really appeal to my nakama side. Anyway, I wasn’t there to solely enjoy the ambiance, but also to work on our presentation. So as soon as we took a seat, I started dividing and assigning the tasks that needs to be done.

The first few minutes were spent with us getting used to our tasks, and finally, when the staff was done preparing, we asked for their menu. There are a lot of selections of drinks, from different varieties of iced coffee to refreshing sodas, and also there are side foods such as nachos, fries, and cheeseburgers. And I almost forgot that it isn’t a café only; it’s also a restaurant that offers solo meals and meals that are good for sharing.

Since we already ate our lunch, we decided to order just the ice beverages and fries. I ordered an iced matcha because I like something that tastes a little bit bitter because for me, it perfectly cancels out the sweetness of milk.

So much for that, we continued doing our tasks when we were done giving our orders, and it wasn’t long before it was served to us. We drank and ate while doing our work, and just like that, the two hours passed, and I’m done with my part! They’re almost done with theirs when their time with peso wifi runs out, that's why they decide to just finish their remaining unfinished task at home. With that, our stay in Café D. Luffy come to an end.

By the way, if you’re interested in visiting Café de Luffy, it’s just walking distance from Jollibee Naga, Cebu. Like I mentioned, it opens from 11:00 A.M. to 10:30 P.M. daily and you can also visit their FB page for further info about their menu and stuff about their café. And that would be all for this sharing, everyone. I hope you somehow enjoyed reading through this and see y’all on my next blog!