Fans call Real Food the little healthy neighborhood grocery that could.

The sunlit, welcoming store at Molito Commercial Center in Alabang was designed by architect Gelo Mañosa, and offers mostly organically grown local produce.

Fruits and vegetables are supplied by farmers from Tagaytay, Batangas and Pangasinan. The lemons are from Surigao del Norte. The cashews and honey are from Palawan, and the coffee is from Bukidnon.

There are also salted eggs made yellow by more environment-friendly turmeric; organic teas, flour and pancake mixes; milk and dark chocolate; and dry-aged wagyu porterhouse. And tucked in a corner are bottles of vodka made from fermented coconut water.

Word-of-mouth has led customers from as far as Valle Verde in Pasig City to visit on Sundays.

Although barely two years old, there is already a clamor from friends to put up branches in other parts of the metro. But the four friends behind Real Food—Nicole Olbes-Fandiño, Bea Lucero-Lhuillier, Yvette “Honey” Hagedorn-Almendral and Katrina “Kat” Sandejas-Mañosa—would rather take their time.

Bright idea

The concept of Real Food was Nicole’s idea. “I wished a store selling healthy food produce existed,” she said. But friends and potential business partners she approached were lukewarm to her pitch, believing the proposal was still too radical for the kuripot (stingy) Alabang market.

It took a long day filled with mommy talk and random thoughts that Nicole spent with Bea for things to move forward.

“I knew Alabang could be receptive to Nicole’s idea,” Bea told Inquirer Lifestyle. “I would totally shop there. I texted her later that day that we could be partners.”

Their two other friends, Honey and Kat, also jumped at the opportunity to have a store with food that would be good for their children.

“We wanted it to be like a grocery where you can get basic products like rice, vegetables, fruits. But it has to be organic. No hormones, no antibiotics. We want the better option,” Nicole explained.

Putting it all together was challenging at first. The women were not very familiar with suppliers, so the shelves did not have much stock.

But Honey recalled getting a lot of support from customers who “have the same vision about healthy eating.”

More importantly, the partners agreed to put a “social aspect” into the business by engaging with small farmers who also prefer to sell products more quietly and on a smaller scale.

Nicole said this is the reason there are no big brands offered in Real Food. “Most of the suppliers are microenterprises,” Kat noted. And 90 percent of the stock are locally produced, Nicole piped in.

“Instead of the farmers selling to distributors, we try to buy directly from the farmers. Sometimes we order something and they come bringing in another product that they just grew,” she said.

This arrangement with local farmers have been “very encouraging” so far, Honey said.

Because all products are organic, Real Food does not offer products that are not in season (which could mean they were produced with a lot of help from artificial ingredients).

“The suppliers are also happy because they have an outlet, we have a shared ideology, they produce, they sell,” Honey pointed out.

Kat added, “We hear vegetarians saying, ‘I can eat now!’”

Real Food opened with no fanfare in April 2016. A year later, the women invited friends, special customers and their local suppliers to celebrate.

Groaning shelves

One weekday morning, a quick check by Lifestyle revealed shelves groaning with artisan piaya, the best-selling multigrain bread (fermented overnight), mixed root chips that taste infinitely better than commercial corn chips, organically-grown powdered cocoa, low glycemic natural nectar, teas and pure juices, coconut sugar, chocolate tablea, fruit preserves, ice cream made with coconut milk, popsicles sweetened with stevia, condiments like sukang Iloko, gourmet seafood in bottles, meat products and cookies—all organic.

The store’s center island is made to look like a farmer’s stall and features siling labuyo, baby corn, pineapples, eggplants, cherry tomatoes, asparagus, ube, sayote, okra and yellow and green bananas.

Real Food is proud of the organic eggs that run out quickly.

“The chickens are not cooped up in a warehouse. They are fed vegetables. You can taste the difference,” Nicole said.

Wooden planks that Gelo Mañosa fashioned into a carabao shelf welcomes customers. Overhead, two antique wooden doors were repurposed into life-size flat chandeliers that illuminate the store on cloudy or rainy days.

On one wall is a mural of a tree done with permanent marker by Kat’s niece Kara Pangilinan of Details Ink. The tree stretches its lone branch to a framed art work of a fork and spoon with the message, “Feed your soul.”

Nicole said that Real Food does not sell fresh fish or meat items, “but there is enough variety to feed the family.” Kat said she is confident that any item her children pick would not make them sick.

Nicole recalled how they were eventually “inundated with requests” to open more branches in other parts of the metro. Mall operators who extended invitations were told Real Food is not in a hurry to expand. The friends are still learning the trade.

“None of us went into this thinking this is going to make us millionaires. This is more like a passion project. It’s more important for us to do it well rather than become big,” Honey said.

Real Food is open Mondays to Sundays, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.

E-mail [email protected]; call 7720131 and 09176780158. Follow @realfoodph on Instagram.