Beyond Orders

Every day, Ibarra Gargantiel and Nicky Villareal prove that they can work against their condition in a café that employs young adults with special needs.

- Joy Rojas

If you allow him, Ibarra Gargantiel can talk all day. The always cheerful and chatty 27-year-old names the dishes he can cook (seafood laksa, hearty Korean bibimbap, Japanese ramen, and pizza, bagels, and ensaymada using ketogenic diet ingredients) and what he bought with his recent salary (T-shirts and Play Station 4 games) with such enthusiasm and absolutely no filter, you can’t help but smile and be happy for him.

He can work all day too if he could. A baker and prep cook at Gourmet Gypsy Art Café on A. Roces Avenue in Quezon City, Ibarra so looks forward to his job that he shows up hours before his appointed time or even when he’s not feeling well. “My goal is to talk less,” he announces unselfconsciously, “and to focus more or I burn the baked goods.”

By contrast, café server Nicky Villareal is as subtle as subtle gets, quietly asking if you prefer cold or warm drinking water before pouring it into your glass and disappearing from view. But this 25-year-old is no pushover. On Valentine’s Day 2018, a customer showed up, insisting he made dinner reservations for one of the café’s busiest times of the year. “But I looked at our guest list twice and his name wasn’t on it,” she says in her trademark calm tone. Despite his persistence, Nicky firmly stood her ground; eventually, they discovered that she was right. “I just let them be,” she says of the challenges that come with her job.

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