Pasalubong is getting a creative spin in San Juan this September.
Pasalubong Center opens at Supernormal on September 25 from 2 p.m., bringing together local goods, tastings, drinks, music and a little Serious Studio nostalgia.
The event takes its name from the familiar Filipino practice of bringing home food, gifts or keepsakes for family and friends. This time, the pasalubong hunt happens inside a neighborhood café and design market.
Supernormal describes itself as a “neighborhood market + café” serving comfort food, small-batch drinks and artist-driven goods. Located at Wilson Park Square along Wilson Street in San Juan City, its retail selection includes books, design publications, accessories and merchandise.
For Pasalubong Center, visitors can expect local goods alongside tastings and drinks, with music or “good grooves” also part of the September gathering.
So yes, there will be things to bring home. But there are also reasons to stick around.
Pasalubong Center is also promising a throwback to Serious Studio.
The Manila design studio has previously explored Filipino products and gifting through its own creative projects.
For Serious Christmas 2019, the studio built a holiday collection around the Filipino words pili and pino, which it translated as “chosen” and “fine.”
The collection brought together products from local brands and gave each one custom packaging. Among them were cereal polvoron from Wildflour, a Pastillas de Pili chocolate bar by Risa Chocolates, honey connected with the Got Heart Foundation, Champorado Granola from Take Root, chocolate-dipped dried mango from Cebu Best and a Filipino coffee blend by EDSA BDG. The collection also included a multipurpose pouch made with Filipino lifestyle brand Halohalo.
Its gift box took visual cues from the bahay na bato, while the individual packaging incorporated Filipino imagery and Serious Studio’s own visual language.
Years later, some of that history is returning through Pasalubong Center.
The setting also puts the event within Supernormal’s existing mix of café culture and design retail.
Its current shop carries its own shirts, caps, tote bags, keychains and stickers alongside design books and publications. Serious Studio’s limited-edition Salo-Salo silk scarf is also among the items listed by Supernormal.
Pasalubong Center adds local goods, tastings and music to that mix. And its name keeps the concept rooted in something decidedly familiar.
Pasalubong can be a delicacy packed into a box, a souvenir squeezed into a suitcase or simply something spotted along the way that makes you think of someone back home. This time, the search does not require a road trip.