The rise of third spaces has opened up a new category of commerce—one where dining, retail, and lifestyle can seamlessly coexist.
These hybrid spaces serve to provide more than just products for sale. Experience and ambience play equally important roles. A sale isn’t the sole measure of success; it’s also in retention and community.
All across Asia and Europe, retail-hospitality hybrids experience a surge in popularity, and Manila’s F&B scene is quickly catching on.
Flower Ranch Cafe is one such concept, bringing together two things people love enjoying, especially in this era of whimsy and softness: coffee and flowers.
It started solely as a flower shop in Shaw in 2015, before opening up a few seats for a small cafe in 2019. Following customer clamor for more space, Flower Ranch expanded into a bigger flower shop-cafe, this time in Poblacion, Makati.
Soleil Ignacio, one of the co-owners of Flower Ranch Cafe, shares how a friend of theirs had discovered their Poblacion location in 2023, which they soon turned into Flower Ranch Cafe’s second home.
Hands-on
“Kami lang ‘yong nag-build ng cafe,” she shares. It seemed like the most natural turn, as she and her family are all creatives. Ignacio, who most may recognize for her work as an illustrator and designer, also has a background in interior design, along with her mother. Her partner is in architecture, while her sister does woodworking. Her sister also developed the cafe’s menu.
There’s a distinct charm in the layout of the Makati outpost called Saglit by Flower Ranch Cafe. Tucked into a relatively quieter side of Poblacion, the cafe leans into homier sensibilities. “We wanted to do adaptive reuse,” Ignacio says of the space. “We wanted to retain a lot of the original features. We wanted to retain that homey, cozy vibe. And dahil parang lumang bahay din siya, it made perfect sense to go that direction (aesthetically).”
Wood features heavily in the cafe, not just in the structure but also in its furniture, which the owners sourced second-hand, adding to the lived-in feel of the space.
Coffee over flowers
Asked how different their two branches are, Ignacio notes, “Maraming nagka-cafe hopping around Poblacion,” Ignacio says. “And we don’t see it as competition; we like that a lot of cafes are popping up, so that when people visit Poblacion, marami silang puwedeng mapuntahan. I think it helps the neighborhood—it makes it more lively (beyond the bars and restaurants).”
In fact, Saglit is more known as a coffee shop, she says. “People are surprised we also have flowers, compared to Shaw—doon mas maraming bumibili ng flowers kasi mas established na siya (as a flower shop). Here, more coffee.”
The menu is kept lean to allow the team to focus on all their offerings. At the Poblacion outpost, try the lavender espresso tonic or the orange masala chai—exclusives at the Makati space—that offer an easy drinking experience that doesn’t overload you with that heavily caffeinated feeling after.
A blooming business
Having been in the business of flowers for almost a decade, Ignacio shares feeling positive about the industry’s growth. “Sobrang natutuwa kami na may boom din ng florals and everything flower-related now,” she says. “Ang daming into floristry, and people are appreciating flowers more [now] compared to before.”
“A lot of people now buy flowers for themselves, hindi lang ‘yong hihintayin na bibigyan ka or may special event. We have a lot of customers now who just want to buy flowers for no special occasion, and we love that.”
