MANILA -- “Elevate local.”

That’s one of the things that the Tantoco family hopes to accomplish with the hybrid grocery and restaurant concept Joel’s Place after putting up the iconic Rustan’s and Shopwise.

Joel’s Place, which opened only last December 8, is a “convergence of retail, food service and experiences,” Crickette Tantoco, who acts as consultant for Joel’s Place, told ABS-CBN News on Monday.

The family curated the assortment of offerings around the three pillars of fresh, healthy gourmet and local. Among the products are a local yoghurt from Palawan, a champorado crisp with tuyo, Malagos chocolate and coffee.

“What we offer here are very different from the supermarkets who have their own space,” Tantoco said. “It’s a different shopping mission, a different space because we are really responding to changing lifestyles of the people.

“Everything is hybrid. Here, it’s your lifestyle. You want to drink coffee. You come from your workout, you take a power shot. So everybody’s multi-tasking. Here it’s very relaxing, very chill, very laidback.”

“Joel’s Place is about discovery... Joel’s Place is about treating yourself. It’s a luxury, because food is the new luxury we feel.”

Tantoco said they source the local products direct from its long-time suppliers.

“For the food, we really want to make it a quick meal but very high quality. The bakery, we make everything from scratch. The juices, we produce our own, as well," she said. “We have the power shots, like the orange turmeric, orange ginger and pineapple turmeric which are quite popular in their respective tiny bottles.”

Remembering Joel

Located at the ground floor of the Proscenium Retail Row at The Proscenium Residences in Rockwell Center, Makati, Joel’s Place functions as a neighborhood "grocerant" and community.

“It’s like your pantry, your refrigerator, your bakery, your juice,” Tantoco said. “This format fits condominium dwellers, office workers, a lot more. It’s quite a different customer.”

The products at Joel’s Place will soon be available also online. “We are introducing something a little at a time,” she said. “If you visit our IG (Instagram), you can see our website there. Every month, we are introducing something new, a little at a time.”

Naming the grocerant was not hard for the Tantocos. It was named after their late brother Joel, who passed on more than a decade ago because of pancreatitis.

“He liked beautiful things and had a very refined palette and very good aesthetics,” said retail marketing expert and Joel’s Place consultant, Frances Yu. “He was a cool person.

“We wanted a proper name, a name of a person. We didn’t want it to sound like a commercial establishment to feel like your second home.

“When you visit Joel’s Place, we don’t want you to feel like you’re in a commercial establishment but a home. There are some people who come here three times a day.”

Christopher Tantoco acts as the chief operating officer of Joel’s Place. At 36, he is the youngest grandson of the Tantocos who returned home after staying in Morocco, where he managed the duty-free business.

He was tapped to join the Manila company in 2019, to work with his “Manong Donnie,” the eldest grandson and president of Rustan’s Commercial Corporation.

“In mid-2019, we decided that we should venture into something new again,” Christopher said. “So in January 2020, we travelled around Europe to look for a new retail format."

Among the cities they visited were London and Paris.

“In Paris, one of the places that struck us the most was Le Bon Marche,” he said. “We also went to Harrod’s in London, although they didn’t do their grocerant concept in a grand scale.

“We also visited Selfridges food hall. We spent two weeks scouting for concepts.”

However, the Tantocos did not readily get to put out their concept because a few weeks after they returned from Europe, the pandemic happened and everything came to a halt.

“I guess you couldn’t control that,” Christopher said. “Eventually all of our focus went to how we would focus on our current business and survive the pandemic. The grocerant was inevitably pushed to the side, so we stabilized and learned what to do with COVID.

“After that, the team went back together and started conceptualizing working on all the plannings, from the design phase, what products should we choose, what pillars. We were all meeting via Zoom. It was very difficult and challenging.”

Christopher was very close to his grandfather, Bienvenido Tantoco, Sr. “I grew up with him,” he said. “I was living with him until I moved back here in Manila. I think it was more of a calling to come back for the family and to spend time with my lolo.”

In the pandemic, Christopher also get married and the couple now have a baby. His grandfather also passed away two years ago.

• Rustan's founder Bienvenido Tantoco Sr. passes away

He is proud to have returned from abroad to work for the family business. “My lolo always wanted me to work for Manong Donnie,” said Christopher.

“My lolo always wanted me to work for the family. After I finished studying at Boston University, I was applying for a job in the US. My lolo said he wanted me to work for the family. He sent me to Morocco to help out in the business.”

Dining-tainment

For her part, Yu noticed people are looking for a new dining-tainment. “Dining is becoming entertainment,” she said. “Even grocery shopping is becoming experiential.

“What we wanted to do was introduce a brand new format wherein we can have both a dining experience that’s fast, healthy and good quality food. At the same time, be able to conduct your grocery shopping. That’s why we came up with a grocerant."

Joel’s Place provides an elevated food experience for all senses – sight, smell, taste, touch even hearing. It bridges the gap between restaurants and supermarkets, allowing people to save both time and effort for shopping and preparing meals.

Yu was part of the pioneering team that started Shopwise in 1998. “Shopwise is a big box store, the first hypermarket in the country,” she explained. “The idea was to have a one stop shopping for all your needs – the wet market, grocery, home services – in one free-flowing shopping cart environment. A grocerant is more intimate.

With her sister Crickette and brother-in-law, Yu also put up Nena’s Sanctuary in Laguna, a special events place that combines modern luxury with nature. That opened also this year.

Yu described Joel’s Place food in its restaurant as a “high-end carinderia,” where one can find risotto, Caesar’s salad, adlai seafood paella, US prime rib and lechon belly with all the sidings.

“You also have high-quality desserts since we have a baker’s section,” Yu added. “We give a very different experience, a very different concept.”

A second branch of Joel’s Place is presently being constructed at Rustan’s Makati and will open in the first quarter of 2024.

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