FEEDING THE MULTITUDE OF ARTISTS and the future of the nation is a tall task, but this has been painter and café proprietor Rock Drilon?s job since opening Mag:net Gallery and Café in Katipunan?s university strip in 2005. While the place is known to showcase the works of some of the hippest, most cutting-edge names on the art scene, while selling magazines and books to students and Quezon City?s reading class, food was never really top-of-mind reason to visit this joint across Miriam College. This, Rock hopes, is about to change.

Mag:net has just launched its refurbished menu prepared by young chef Nino Laus. When before the food was mostly an aside to the beer and fancy art talk, or to nightly performances by bands and poets, Drilon is confident its new dishes will be a good come-on.

?Mag:net has always had a very high standard for the art it shows,? says Drilon, ?so I wanted the culinary aspect of Mag:net to be an art form as well.? Laus, he quips, made this possible.

A graduate of St. Benilde?s Hotel and Restaurant Management School, 27-year old Laus already owns a restaurant, In-Yo Fusion Cuisine, on Katipunan Road. Laus brings fusion cuisine also to Mag:net, served on Lanelle Abueva-designed plates, but with a twist.

In-Yo?s food is French-Japanese, while Mag:net?s will be Filipino in concept but European and Japanese in execution. His Tinapang Dory, for example, is a salty and soft fillet of fish on agli olio pasta sautéed in caviar cream sauce. It is flavored by a watercress relish in vinaigrette, made Pinoy with the mix of soy sauce and dalandan juice. It has become a favorite. The night of our visit, a Saturday, singer and songwriter Isha was, well, singing praises to the dish in between her sets. Drilon said he uttered an expletive the first time he tried it. ?The taste was just beautifully overwhelming,? he expressed.

Playful

A few more entries on the menu are of equally playful strokes: the miso-braised bulalo, and the bihon-wrapped prawn tempura served with squid, quail egg, cherry tomatoes and bonito flakes.

Laus is particularly proud of his Chicken Leg rubbed with Cordillera Coffee, which may look dark at first glance but is certainly not burnt. The coffee gives the tender chicken its surprising sweetness, enhanced even more by a bed of sweet potato on which it is served.

Not a salad fan? Laus? Bagoong Balayan Caesar?s Salad is a delicious reason to convert. This one has a delicious slightly creamy dressing that has just the right hint of the bagoong, and among the fresh greens is a wealth of sautéed seafood and julienned mangoes?an ingenious way to trick you to eat your greens. Some weeks back, in these pages, an article about kare-kareng bagnet appeared. It was from a restaurant called Pino where Laus is consultant chef. He has brought a slightly modified version of the bagnet to the Mag:net menu: Choc Nut Kare-kareng Liempo served with bagoong fried rice and home-made pickles.

The community that Mag:net has cultivated in the four years of nightly activities of poetry, music, independent cinema and even theater remains the crème de la crème of the city?s culturati. On any given night, there?s Krip Yuson enjoying his single malt, Butch Dalisay checking the art, Lourd de Veyra reading from the stage, Roberto Chabet supervising the setup of another exhibit, or Sarge Lacuesta watching girlfriend Mookie Katigbak read her latest verses. It?s only fitting that Drilon serves the country?s best literary and artistic minds no less than an inspiring meal.

Mag:net Gallery and Café is at Katipunan Road, Diliman, Quezon City, across Miriam College.