I'm born and raised in tagete silence isn't such a bad thing just to break the stigma those rules are like what I don't want personally because call it the Ten Commandments of having way actually graduated as a sound
engineer nobody knows what a sound engary does in the Philippines I finally found a client that can afford me myself the world now is um very loud place and and silence is a luxury now hey YouTube Alex here
and in today's video we're going down to the Hemingway Cafe here in Dumaguete in the daro neighborhood Hemingway is a quiet Cafe everything is set up to be quiet for people who are neurode divergent or who are introverted
it's a really relaxing space on a side note this is the business that I'm most excited about here in Dumaguete and I found my experience there to be very calming I noticed one positive recent review said that after
they spent some time there it felt like they had gotten a massage if you're in Dumaguete or even if you're in other parts of the Philippines you come here to visit dumag I recommend going to check it out
if you want a quiet space I loved it I will definitely be going back there the owner Jerry is a really thoughtful guy he's really put a lot into this Cafe you can tell if you go there everything
is meticulously planned and I look forward to returning soon so without further Ado it may sound like we are whispering but but we were only doing so to be considerate of the customers in the establishment let's get to
meet Jerry so thank you so much for having us today we're here at the Hemingway Cafe I want to take an opportunity to introduce you to the owner here he's going to share a bit about himself in the
cafe hey um I'm Jerry I'm the owner of um Hemingway Coffee Lounge um start off I think I should say that um I I was diagnosed as um ADHD and autism a couple of years back maybe three three
years back and I think that started why I um conceptualized a place like this um to help me with my over stimulation I I have severe anxiety when it comes to noise and overcrowded and I think that's why
it's not it's not usual to have a place in the Philippines like this um so that's why I I saw the I saw the problem and I was trying to find a solution and this is Heming way how
has the response been so far do you feel yeah how's the response been so far it was mixed response at first um the ND Community has been loving it so far I've had people come here and say they've
been waiting for some some place like this to to open in dag um and some some neurotypical people have also I mean came here checked it out and realized huh this isn't silence isn't such a bad thing being
um being alone with your thoughts is not such a bad thing and um being in a place that's actually non not over stimulating is actually good um although there are people who still prefer to have the loud music
uh loud conversations or even like groups in a table cuz we're limiting our our other people sitting in the table limiting it to maximum of two people um to um minimize the possibility of them being too noisy or
too rowdy so yeah there are some people who came here in the first few weeks who never came back uh those were the people who I mean how do I put this slightly um those are the people who
are okay with the other establishments they have their place they already claim their own place in other cafes or in other restaurants um the people who came here and who and keep coming back I think um they finally
found their place um a place they can finally claim their own especially the introverts and the neur divergents to me it's incredible um I've been to many different uh establishments here in the Philippines and um you know I
find the culture here to be very welcoming and very friendly and funloving but I'm also prone to over stimulation I'm prone to getting like racing thoughts or um wanting to just slow down like slow my mind down and
um I know I'll definitely be a regular here uh I'm I'm also telling my friends about it cuz it's just uh very expected very welcomed very very welcomed but also very unexpected um do you feel like a cafe
like this can help to um you know I'm I'm Asian-American and I think that often we don't talk about mental health in our community um and I think the younger Generations are changing that do you feel like a
cafe like this can help to kind of start some of those conversations talking about things like autism or ADHD actually if um if you check our page in Instagram and Facebook where before we opened this we were actually
um putting some um infographics about neurod Divergence autism ADHD bipolar and and the likes um that's definitely one of Hemingway's um goals moving forward um just to break the stigma of um mental health especially in the Philippines um
to let people know that it's not it's not made up um it's actually it's real people have it people are experiencing it and aside from that um and that it's okay to talk about it is there's nothing shameful
there's nothing shameful to to talk about it or to admit that or to have yourself diagnosed or have yourself check and um another goal that we're have we want to have here is um to have the new Divergence
know that there are other people like us um in the community we don't we hardly see each other because we hardly we hardly go to these kinds of places we don't have these kinds of places at all so
it's nice to have i' I've met a few people who came here and said that and that messaged the page that says hey I'm Andy and thank you for like there I think around more than 10 people have
already messaged like from D yeah um could you excuse me for a while I need to let them going back um yeah I think this would help um and your Divergence have a sense of community and hopefully we'll
see where it goes from there you have eight rules here that I think you put a lot of thought into um what made you choose those rules um over other rules like what kind of prompted you to to
set those boundaries um well first of all um those rules are like what I don't want personally like what what makes me over stimulated it's the noise um what what makes uh visually over stimulated um people moving around
fast and changing the tables and those sorts of stuff um that's one that's one of the reasons why I chose to you second reason is I did um a survey online asked other NE divergents uh if they had
a place um what would they want to implement and that it's funny cuz most of us have the same a little similar like similar wants and um things we don't want and so kind of uh looked at all
those answers and said okay so these 10 are probably the most important one so that's why we put we call it the Ten Commandments of he way so yeah so I have a lot of positive feelings about tagete
um but there's also a lot of wonderful places in the Philippines why choose dumag over I don't know maybe a different place like are you you from here in dumag I'm born and raised in dumag yeah so um
if I had to choose I mean start here like um and also I think it's it's much more expensive to start in bigger cities so I mean at least make an impact in my hometown so I know that
you have the ground rules here but I also sense that you've made some conscious choices in Decor this might be the quietest place I've been in this entire city and I've I've lived here for 6 months um what
are some of the conscious choices of of furniture you mentioned not wanting for example people to be kind of rushing around how does the furniture contribute to fostering a a peaceful environment well uh number one the layout is
set um in a way that there are visible paths like big enough paths for people to pass by and not squeeze themselves between tables if you noticed um it's there there are visible paths you can go through and
not bump other people um and then again we're limiting people to two people per table so that's also like one thing that makes it um less cluttered and then I'm actually uh actually graduated as a sound engineer uh
Berkeley Boston so I applied what I learned there and Acoustics um with this acoustic panels acoustic paints acoustic flooring it also helps with the with the how the noise and the sound um Works inside I even even joked
with u the staff that because I never had I never had a job as a sound engineer here in the Philippines nobody knows what a sary does in the Philippines and acoustician does so I joke to them I
find I finally found a client that can afford me myself yeah so yeah Al yeah even the paint is acoustic paint um the panels um I purposely chose wood rather than metal for the tables cuz it's it also
absorbs some sound the materials yeah so when you when you ask me if like how how much consideration I did I did a lot of consideration in terms of the materials used you mentioned hiring neurod Divergence staff was
it important to you as part of your mission to to bring people on board that could understand or you could relate to yeah um that's actually one of the things when we started the when we started the application
or like um seeking out U people to work here um I didn't specify that if you were new Divergent you can apply here but um going through the applications um I just uh I actually if I remember correctly
most of the applicants I went through and interviewed and it was during the interview period when I when I started to um check off mentally check off those um okay okay he he can talk well he's one of
the Baristas actually is funny cuz I I um I put a note on her on her interview sheet she's clearly ADHD like clearly ADHD um as we were doing the interview and you can see um just looking around
listen she can she can talk to me or she can answer my questions she was just like talking like okay he has a bigger chance of getting in here so um from I think close to 100 applicants we
got it down to about six um and then those six were um if not officially diagnosed but um peer reviewed um yeah so and aside from that we also um but we also U got some deaf uh people
here to work so um so it's not just uh mental uh we're not just accommodating for the for people with mental health um things we also the physical and uh dare I say emotional trauma so yeah I don't
know if that makes sense you're you're making perfect sense I've already had one friend get really excited I just told him about it tonight um before I came here and he he said does such a place really exist
um he's another foreigner like myself and um I suspect neurot uh neur Divergent I I haven't asked him about that but I just kind of have my suspicion um this has got to be like the first of its
kind I mean I've never heard of it it's very very early but you know I I Envision a future where this is more common that this kind of idea spreads around because it's it's so hard to uh so
hard to find a place like this um what are your hours and uh what do you serve and um also how can people find you okay so we open um our hours are from 12: noon to 12:00 midnight
yeah um I specifically chose those times cuz I usually wake up at around 11:00 and I know most Andy people also wake up late or at least have a hard time waking up early so and our brains usually
function more I I mean from this time to midnight or even to early morning so that's why I chose that um for now we are serving some pastries and cookies um just basic Cafe food um basic coffees and
some matcha because um it's been heavily requested by people to have matcha here um and some teas um like loose leaf teas uh yeah and then um if you want to come and check us out we are in
Diego de Street NST building uh in d d you you can just Google us and you can find us there and when you're here in the area you can just look up and find the H it's um people
have been dubbing it the bat signal for Neo Divergence like look up but find H and you're going to be home well thank you so much um for introducing this can you share any final thoughts or final words
for us tonight before we wrap up so I just realized I never explained why I call it taming way in the first place so just uh just bring it full circle um I call it tamming way not because
of the author not about Ernest hming way if you can notice it's a different spelling I spelled it with two M's the our Hemingway is two M's um so it's more on um you know what the Hem is
right like for U for the cloth the Hem a hem is usually there um so that the cloth won't run or the thread in the cloth won't run so that's why we call this Hemingway because this is the
place for our thoughts to hem our thoughts so that it won't run and we can calm down relax be grounded and probably um be a beautiful sleeve or something so yeah it's just so that our thoughts won't unravel
that much outside cuz um um the world now is U very loud place and and silence is a luxury now so um yeah um Heming way because it's to ham our thoughts make it smooth and clean and to
you set yeah that's it and I hope uh I hope um people will get to experience this and um be uh at peace and not I'm really disclosed that well thank you so much we really appreciate you're joining
us tonight um it's been a pleasure I know I'll be coming back here again and again I'll be telling all of my friends about it um you know it's it's so it's like a I don't know how to
explain it it's such a I feel like I'm wrapped up in a cozy blanket on a on a very cold day um I feel like I'm drinking like hot chocolate and like it's just um anyway please come check
out Hemingway and and get a chance to meet the lovely staff and um if you're a hardcore introvert and aerody diversion like me you'll feel right at home here uh so thanks so much everybody we'll see you soon
