5th Street Cafe

They buy the coffee beans from small farmers of Davao and Mindanao. They roast the beans, grind and brew into a sweet smelling hot coffee.

This you could find at 5th Street Cafe along Ecoland, Matina, Davao City.

Actually it started as a non-government organization whose aim is into organizing farmers to go into chemical-free farming.

The organization, Siad Initiatives in Mindanao Convergence for Asset Reform and Regional Development, has not limited itself into organic farming as it has started operating its coffee shop, 5^th Street Café, located along the 5^th Street of Ecoland Subdivision, just a stone’s throw away from SM City Davao.

It is an alternative meeting place and a neighborhood store for organic products and a cafe at the same time.

It started with a P300,000 investments but the management believes that the organization will be able to recoup its seed fund in the next two years.

The café concept came about after finding out that people, mostly those involved in non-government organization work, could hardly find a place to meet and discuss issues. At the 5th street cafe "they are who they are” that even students have started trooping to the café especially on Saturdays to work on their assignments as it is also a wireless fidelity spot, or an area where someone can connect to the Internet without the use of a telephone line.

Browsing on the menu list, one can find what the organization has been advocating. The chicken is native, the rice is organic, and the coffee, of course, the coffee, is from farmers all over Mindanao.

Part of the coffee is from Basilan, the besiege province that has been hounded by the armed conflict between the military and the dreaded Abu Sayyaf Group. The Basilan coffee is even comparable with the much-touted Barako coffee of Batangas.

Other sources of coffee are the farmers of upland Maragusan in Compostela Valley and those in Sultan Kudarat.

Also in its menu are food that one cannot usually find in a regular diner or café like the best seller native chicken adobo, and other food recipes mostly cooked only at homes. And if one goes daring, you can try their dalag or mudfish in spicy coconut milk as indicated in the menu.

But one good thing for those who dread food with a lot of cholesterol, the place is not for pork eater as operators want to help you stay healthy. So no port and beef nor use MSG (monosodium glutamate, an artificial spice), a warning also indicated in the menu.

The price is just right and those who are into tight budget, a hearty meal would only cost at about $1 and 20 cents or less than a dollar (US) for “bibingka with tsokolate” (rice cake and hot choco drink)

Coffee drinkers, on the other hand, will have two shots of hot espresso for USD $1 or USD $1.10 for a large mug of cappuccino which usually sells about USD $2.50 in the regular coffee shops in the city.

But for those who don’t want coffee, but want to quench their thirst, they can try “sambong tea, a uniquely healthy drink made from powdered, sambong leaves.”

Or for the young people, there are fruit shakes to choose from, all sold at 90 cents a glass.

But the café management warns for those who love to drink using straw. “We do not use plastic straw and coffee stirrer as our humble contribution to protecting Mother Earth. We hope you understand,” the menu adds.

The café also doubles as a store for organic products, from premium denorado rice to the muscovado sugar from Agusan del sur and Sultan Kudarat.

For someone who wants to sip a steaming coffee and tastes mouth-watering organic meal, then 5^th Café is the place. (Thanks CQF)