Best speakeasies in 🇵🇭 BGC? A Manila birthday outing

It’s Nelvine Ocampo’s birthday and we came to party! Follow us as we experience several of the top underground bars in BGC, Philippines. From cocktail creativity and atmosphere to food and fun, we cover it all!

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ABOUT US

We’re the Lockwoods. And we’re traveling the world to experience—up close and in person—all the natural wonders and distinct cultures that our kids would otherwise be consuming only through textbooks and TV. We think it’s a better way to learn and we’re working hard to fund this little experiment in the hope that our kids will grow up wiser, kinder, and more grateful for the beauty of our diverse planet and its people.

We’ve been in BGC Metro Manila for about 2 weeks now searching for an apartment because we want to live really close to our best friends and tonight’s a special night because we’re going to be celebrating our best friend’s birthday nelvin O compo Let’s get the party started we’re meeting at their apartment

Dropping our kids off to play with their kids for the night while the four grown-ups go out for the fun it’s your birthday party singing happy birth oh thank you thank you you’re welcome it’s good to finally be 21 again well we’ve had our very important parent child a briefing all expectations

Have been set and it’s time for the grown-ups to get out here and [Applause] party we’re doing something pretty special for nin’s birthday he’s a special person to us we’re going out on a Speak Easy tour these shoes aren’t just fun they are great for going out

Because of all the walking you have to do that really thick heel makes me last all night bye guys byebye bye thank you for the pizza byee make you hydrate everybody of course nurse Mia byebye for helping love you guys we made it we out the Door o we are officially out on the town and these speak eies are such a secret I don’t even know where we’re going we’re just going to follow the okmas the term Speak Easy comes from about a hundred years ago in the United States during the prohibition ERA this

Is when it was illegal to drink alcohol to own alcohol to sell alcohol to buy alcohol so they had these underground clubs that people could go to to drink illegally now we don’t have to worry about that these days in the United States or in the Philippines so really

The Speak Easy today is all about the aesthetic and typically about having a an entrance in a an establishment that’s out of public view so a lot of times it’s hidden doors in the back of a restaurant or some other area of a building and then Lower Lights just the

Darker interior so that people can’t see you when you’re breaking the law I feel like whiskey is the most common liquor that is served I don’t think I’ve ever been to a Speak Easy that had a lot of vodka or Gins we’re not the biggest whiskey drinkers but I mean we’re

Willing to try anything we’re up for the experience of course I don’t think we have to settle for whiskey if that’s not what we want to drink tonight we walked right past the first one of course we didn’t even notice it because it’s a 711 I never would have thought that in our

Party outfits and our heels we’re going to be going to a 7-Eleven so I don’t even see where a secret entrance would be from here I am not great with the streets yet I need a little bit of time but we are at the 7-Eleven that is right

Across the street from the fort BGC oh my gosh we’re so naughty password for tonight is n so Aaron’s going to have to go up to the lady at the cashier and ask her how to get into to the speaky all right guys I got this I’ll get you guys

In hi we’re here for the easy that was easy and it is the door it’s right there in the door the hidden door is the door hello yeah got ketchup oh a couple noodles all right case you get hungry welcome to the first pey bake bar ooh Yes now the party’s here we didn’t make a reservation apparently you can have those and we’re going to sit right over here at least they’re not sitting us next to the 7-Eleven bathroom we started our night at about 6 p.m. so we’re here pretty early it gets

Crowded around 900 p.m. so make sure to get here early if you don’t have a reservation and also a DJ comes at 900 p.m. these Tunes are fine for me though so there’s no whiskey there’s actually two rum drinks and a gin cocktail and if you’re a visual person they have photos

There’s another menu right here actually it’s got the logo on the front this is called Bank bar in case you didn’t know that already and there’s cocktail section in here so let’s see what else we might have probably some whiskey for Aaron I need a little food it is not a

Good idea for Aaron to start drinking without a little food in her tummy so keep in mind we’re ordering from four speak easys today okay and they all have a different menu yeah L bites um I will do a martini could I do half chin half

Vodka please I’m going to do the same as pH see I have food envy and I also have drink Envy so when I see other people with food or drink like I just want to try it so we got two other classic drinks here called Nashi some vodka with

Some Yu and some lemon peel it kind of looks like a lemonade but it looks really refreshing this goes to my baby nelin for his birthday tonight it’s our first his first birthday in four years where we’re actually celebrating with people and now it’s our best friend so

Cheers baby I love you happy Birthday buddy happy birthday you are friend you are family and we love you love you guys love you m so clean so classic I love the half it’s called a Vesper right vesa no not quite it’s partway to a Vesper Martini veser Martini has two additional uh

Ingredients in it lilet um I can’t even remember them but as I was telling nelvin I just like how having a little bit of vodka in there helps chill out the Botanical flavors from the genevan Rio got me a kids drink it tastes like tangerine juice bill usually orders my

Drink but I’m trusting rcio today and so far these are the most dangerous ones because they don’t taste like feel like alcohol but then they hit you like 10 minutes but I I want to laugh I want to laugh ah the food has arrived pork and shrimp dumplings well it looks like we

Got the pork and shrimp dumplings and these might be the croads or they could be the fried green olive stuffed with ricotta hon cro and there must be the olives M very very warm and like a really strong green olive taste that is so good that’s a good little bite that

Is very good that’s going to be hard to beat so this is the pork and strip dumpling again a good little bite I think we did pretty well with the three best bar bites what goes better with a martini than an olive we’re going to sitp this down and head out it’s already

Time to go to the next one Mama’s getting tipsy let’s hit it let’s go to Speak Easy number two you want to make out we’re in the closet Together I don’t know where we’re going we’re just following them Rosio and noin have the path for the evening and I don’t think the next one’s very far and we won’t even know when we get that it’ll be hidden if the next three year is good as that one we’re in for a

Really really good night because those drinks were perfect and the food was phenomenal speaky that we’re going to is called out of the office BGC and their drinks are supposed to be super crafty and creative so this might win one of our themes here of best drinks yeah

We’ll see if they’re Phil Lockwood worthy best mixologist in the world hi M hi Mia we hydrated I promise good no fires no emergencies we got a good checkin let’s go to the next bar it’s like a z0 like out of office so that’s it High Street

On top of High Street near Surendra and this is Sushi Nori and there is a 0000 for like the signal of where it is but we we still don’t quite know where the entrance is we’re going to go and push on some walls and press the buttons

And see if anything opens up come on in and very air conditioned oh you like it now I like it now I appreciate it now cheers hyd Foria say qualify as a Speak Easy Phil it doesn’t because it needs to be hidden from public View and this door

Was just right here and it did have a sign in front that said I still give them props because they do have the aesthetic it looks like a Speak Easy in here they were on the right track with the timer digits the type face that they use for the o or

000000 but when they actually put the name right under it and then the blinds being open I don’t think it’s hidden from public view but otherwise yeah I give it a thumbs up Kua Hope was just telling us their most famous drink here signature drink it’s called a

Confidential because it is blacked out is doing the confidential and I’m doing the espresso martini and then we can trade off it is pretty clever since the place is called out of office all of their cocktails the signature ones have names like that paid leave 13th month confidential transparency eom which is

End of month conference I’m I’m being told that eom is actually employee of the month but we’ve never used it that way it’s EOD which is end of day end of week end of month so I don’t know I’m going to have to file a t s report on that one

I’m pretty sure that I just corrected Phil on something and he’s resisting this because eom is employee of the month aon’s getting a little overconfident here because some people say that when I correct her it’s like I don’t know rude or inconsiderate or something but they don’t know they

Haven’t gone back and watched the earlier episodes where it all started because Aaron would correct the whole family with whom versus who that’s the one thing that I really I’m a stickler for So this one islo of the so Lo the fire like it’s superday happy birthday happy birthday wow w wow in here is the secret recipe for this particular cocktail we will never show you but I’m going to try to guess it and nelvin is going to try to guess

It we’re going to try to guess it based on flavors and then we’ll see if we’re right but you have to come in here to find out let’s see if you’re guys good in guessing Che like if it’s Jean whiskey bka tequila tequila grapefruit juice yeah you’re right they’re good anything

Else alapo no but confidential guys that done look here I not the espresso that’s pretty awesome I got the Nutty which is a VOD based espresso Martini pretty good hey everybody who’s been watching for years and those that don’t drink coffee yeah that’s really good all right this place gets major

Major props whatever points they may lose because it’s not a hidden location they make up for with some very creative and high quality cocktails this place awesome for our our little bar bite they had mostly large items on the menu like nachos fries and we got calamari I

Dropped mine in the sauce it’s pretty good I definitely approve but drinks are blowing out of the water the food I can’t say that they just turned off the lights and closed the blinds now where a be easy W it’s Happ birthday it’s going to take me four

Steps to finish this one shot five happy birthday nelvin this place turned out to be a really awesome find even though it wasn’t hard to find we are going to go and check out the next one our next stop is a little bit of a walk which we don’t

Mind we’re going to get a grab anyway it’s closer to up toown which is probably about a 20 minute walk so we’re going to take a 5-minute cab instead not a cab a grab oh grab a cab grab we got our grab right here thanks to miss

Rio the name is called yes please at the palace but it goes by yes please no you didn’t yes and it’s supposed to have the coolest Ambiance with music and a lot of lights so can’t wa to see what this one looks like yay I maybe I’ll do a little danc good thank

You please party time for come on now let’s go oh I forgot my camera you can tell it’s Speak Easy number three yes I told you there’s a dance Flo here did I say there’s a dance floor I love dancing is this yes please this is yes

Please yes how do we please yes please go up not allowed No cameras upstairs No cameras upstairs no worries give us one moment to put our stuff in that is a nogo they are strict about cameras so much so that they saw our cameras they

Saw us put it in our bags that they wouldn’t even let us walk in they said you have to leave it in your car and of course we don’t have a car and we asked if they had a locker that we could leave it in or a coat check type of place that

We could leave it at and they said no we don’t have anything like that you just can’t come in so hey sorry we cannot show you this place this is at the back corner of the Uptown Mall and uh no go for ABC MD it would have been nice to

See it because a lot of people apparently Rave about this place but the reality is if you have three bouncers out front it’s not really as Speak Easy anyway it’s probably a really cool bar and I would assume they have good cocktails and maybe some good snacks but

It could not be more conspicuous than it is so Speak Easy no awesome maybe on to the next place for sure we know it’s going to rock so we just have to go to the next one which is the one we’re most excited about in our last episode we

Mentioned that shanga has a Speak Easy and that is where we’re headed and it’s supposed to be an awardwinning Speak Easy we can’t wait let’s go let’s go did I time that with the motorcycle now we’re going to head to our home the place that we’ve been living for the

Past two weeks since we’ve arrived in the Metro Manila area the shanga shanga at the Fort and now we’ve come full circle here we are we’re at the shanga entrance but uh the entrance to the Speak Easy I think is on the other side the High Street entrance to it I feel

Like somebody told us about this too that this is the one with a red door well it wouldn’t be truly authentic unless we had a little a little bit of a struggle finding the entrance and it’s already 9:30 if we were to go to the last week easy we would have been there

Until 10:30 and we wouldn’t have even made it to this be easy I know and I’m so old I would have been asleep by then we would have been drinking coffee in an hour oh UCC Speak Easy cuz you missed it right past it all right speak easy test

Number one Incognito Phil walked right past check test number two if they let us take the cameras in So it looks like this is the bar but maybe there’s more to it this is Hotel bar at shangra La main bar Speak Easy one room I feel like we’re going to go into another room now so that was the first room we walked into and it got really loud really party like and we’re about to see another room okay ready let’s go oo Saky love this room yes this is like the secret Library spot I love it but not a whole lot of places to sit like it’s pretty crowded and it looks filled up already but love this Room’s there’s [Applause] more I want that way this is checking all the boxes so far in terms of the speaky the aesthetic and Ambiance barely knew where the place was you get in here and I feel like we just stepped into the great gadp let’s see how the drinks Are loveing here for this round instead of doing the craft cocktails we’re making our own we’ve got a bottle of Cheetos some ton some club soda and some lime that’ll do we’re getting so set up here not only do we love the music here and

We love the people we just met a ton of really really friendly vocals that say yes we need to live in BGC and then we bought a bunch more bites so we have a cheese tray some uh Spicy Chicken Wings boneless chicken wings and then we have

Like a loaded potato bite so we’re set we are going to eat we’re going to drink we’re going to dance and we’re going to enjoy the night a little bit we’ll see you when we get out of here and we can talk without stou ready we ready ready we ready ready we

Ready ready we ready motivational you mentally feel like Kobe I’m like y with the rock you physically could hold me I don’t care if you push it0 you can never little BR me you’re step like from out okay one Wi C coffee no coffee tonight and no yawning whoever yawns has to take a shot don’t you dare yes she’s yawn like four times already no yawning it’s conent