Buglas Isla Café: A Taste of the Past

 

Buglas Isla Cafe: Where the past becomes contemporary.

There stands a house in Dumaguete City that was never meant to be there. It wasn’t originally built in the city by the sea, nor was it built on local soil. Instead, it arrived piece by piece, with timbers marked and catalogued like heirlooms hauled from another town, another time. From the moment it was rebuilt, this house was already old. But it stands today, not as a relic, but as a living space. A space called Buglas Isla Café.

The story of Buglas Isla Café begins in Bais City, historically one of Negros Oriental’s wealthiest towns. With records lost in the annals of time, not much is known about the house, aside from a Senor Marcelo Rotea purchasing it from a Chinese trader in 1929. While it wasn’t extraordinary in those days, it was well built, made with hardwood so dense that contemporary woodworkers couldn’t identify some of it nearly a century later.

Old Negros charm for a modern audience.

Over the years, the house became home, sheltering generations. Its three upstairs bedrooms became a sanctuary. Meals were cooked in a kitchen beside the main structure, while the bathroom stood outside, as was common in homes of that era. But what made the house truly significant wasn’t the design, but the memories held within its walls.

Among the memories is one of tragedy. Before World War II, the house had been part of a lumber yard. When Japanese forces occupied Bais City, they converted the house into a garrison. During this time, Señor Marcelo’s four sisters were captured. Only one returned. The family carried on, but silence lingered. The walls bore witness to it all.

In the years following the war, the house remained. Worn out but standing. The Rotea family returned to live within its walls. However, as with all old homes, time took its toll, and the memories once kept within its rooms began to fade.

Buglas Isla Cafe personifies the adaptive reuse concept.

The house might have been lost entirely – just one of many ancestral homes in Negros left to decay – if not for the vision of a group of people who saw its potential. They asked: What if we saved it? 

The concept of adaptive reuse was at the heart of this decision. Adaptive reuse allows for the preservation of heritage buildings, repurposing them, and providing a more sustainable alternative to demolition and new construction. Rather than let the house succumb to time, it was carefully dismantled, every piece labeled – from walls to windows, floors to steps. The logistics were complex, but the commitment was clear: to respect the history while breathing new life into it.

The house was transported over several months, piece by piece, and reassembled on E.J. Blanco Drive in Dumaguete. No one builds houses like this anymore. Some of the wood used in the original structure couldn’t be identified, even by seasoned carpenters. But the reassembling, which is a type of restoration process, wasn’t just about fixing a structure; it was about preserving a cultural memory.

A taste of home.

When it came time to decide what this house would become, the answer wasn’t a museum. It wasn’t left to quietly decay. Instead, it became Buglas Isla Café – a space that serves food in a setting of Old World charm.

The café, in keeping with the principles of adaptive reuse, doesn’t try to outshine the house. Its design leans into the space’s old bones – the capiz windows, the warm wood, the subtle echoes of footsteps on hardwood floors. The house isn’t just preserved as a historical monument. It also continues to serve the community, adapting to new needs while preserving its past.

Buglas Isla Café isn’t just for tourists. It’s for the old families who once lived in Bais, and the new ones who are finding their place in Dumaguete. It’s a place to eat, yes, but also a place to lose oneself in celebrated gentility. To sit in a space where the past and present meet, where every meal is shared in the shadow of a story that started nearly a century ago and continues to unfold.

Article and video script by: John Mari A. Marcelo

Video by: Grilled Cheese Studios

Photos by: Paolo Correa / John Mari A. Marcelo