Beautiful vintage

A visit to the Adarna Food & Culture, a three month old restaurant situated along Kalayaan Ave., Quezon City, opened my eyes to the splendid beauty of vintage objects. At the entrance of this resto cum museum, I noticed two antique Singer sewing machines. My grandmother used to have one of these manual machines where she would sew the dresses and camisoles she designed for me.

Walking further into the alfresco area, I noticed arranged in one nook a tarnished Snowman ice crasher, wooden plow, wooden coconut scraper, a pair of boat paddles, and a gigantic wooden mortar and pestle which, I think, was used for rice in the olden times.

Moving through the premises, a wooden shelf close to the ceiling caught my attention as it teems with a number of old soft drink bottles like Cheers, Coco Vim, San Miguel, and Coke. According to Adarna’s Chef Giney, bottles that do not have symbols or ridges engraved at the bottom are from the 50’s era.

Adarna has two function rooms that unquestionably bear interesting themes. I entered the room which bore a movie theme so I basically enjoyed a trip down moviedom’s 50s and 60s era. Plastered on its walls are framed posters of Dolphy’s classic films, black and white photos of Sampaguita Pictures and LVN stars like Susan Roces, Rosemarie Sonora, Vilma Santos, Amalia Fuentes, and a lot others whose names I can’t recall.

Of all the beautiful objects at Adarna, I particularly liked the cut out ads from magazines and newspapers that have surpassed generations, administrations and calamities. Secured in either wooden or copper frames, these advertisements depict the evolution of the advertising world. From simple tag lines and images, advertisements have become rich in colors, elaborate designs and intelligent copies.

According to the ads that hung on the walls of Adarna, before Pepsi’s famous slogan, “The Choice of the new generation,” it used to banner “Everyone, everywhere drinks Pepsi-Cola!” Then, before there was “Always Coca-Cola,” Coke used to claim “It’s Nice To Get Together” and “Nothing is so Refreshing.”

Other notable antique print ads on the Adarna walls are that of Lifebuoy and Camay soaps.