CHIBUGAN CAFE AND MORE (302 Athens Road, in Winterville, 706-424-4286): Formerly Off the Vine and C & C Cafe and Produce, the little building at the corner of Athens and Cherokee roads in Winterville is now something more unexpected and more interesting: a Filipino restaurant and market.
Filipino food in Athens has come and gone over the years. Ages ago there was a food store on Baxter Street. Then there was the Manila Express food truck, sorely missed by yours truly. Now there’s this charming place to get your fix of a cuisine that is salty, sweet, sour and porky, sometimes all at the same time. Although the address of Chibugan is on Athens Road, you’ll have to drive around the corner to access the parking lot in the back. The restaurant’s name means “time to eat,” and there’s a Filipino word of the day written on a chalkboard behind the counter.
The main menu is American deli sandwiches, served wrapped in red-and-white-checked paper. They’re fine, but they’re not the reason you’re here. The Filipino menu is much smaller, but seems to be expanding: lumpia (small fried spring rolls, either pork or veggie, served with a vinegary dipping sauce); pansit (a tangy rice noodle dish made with meat or vegetables); barbecue pork skewers lightly glazed with a sweet and sour sauce and served over rice; and chicken adobo, simmered in soy sauce, garlic and vinegar, then served on the bone over rice. That’s about how to rank them, too, from worst to first, but knowing that there really is no worst. Your best option is to get the Chibugan combo and add adobo for a real feast. Lately, Chibugan seems to be playing around with silog: meaty, eggy breakfast dishes that seem like a lovely addition. A refrigerated case on the counter holds large but light slices of cake in flavors like mango, ube and matcha. To drink, you can pick from bubble tea (milk only; some variety of flavors) or a coffee made to order or you can investigate the coolers that hold things like Pororo and Mogu Mogu fruit juices and Ramune sodas. Chilled Ocean Bomb sparkling waters in flavors like kiwi and white grape are a refreshing option.
Chibugan also scoops ice cream and has an array of snacks and Filipino groceries for sale packed into a few shelves: milky breadsticks, prawn crackers, noodles (instant and regular), sauces (banana ketchup, sriracha, Mag Tomas all-purpose sauce), Spam, canned fish, ginger candies, Hello Kitty marshmallows, mochi and Nagaraya (maybe more familiarly known as Japanese peanuts in Mexico, consisting of peanuts covered in a thin cracker shell and flavor dusted with things like adobo or barbecue and a snack I’ve been chasing ever since that Baxter Street store closed). The atmosphere is chill, with some tables inside and out but plenty of take-out business, too. You should go check it out. Chibugan is open 11 a.m.–7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
PHILANTHROPY FRESH (350 E. Broad St., 706-215-9954): An offshoot of a restaurant in Loganville, Philanthropy Fresh opened in the former Zombie Donuts in December, on a stretch of Broad Street that’s right downtown but feels farther than expected from the businesses across the street. The name comes from the idea that you can round up your bill and donate to a different local charity each month. The overall vibe unfortunately over-promises and under-delivers.
Want a burger? It’s nice to be able to get one with toppings like arugula, bacon jam and herbed goat cheese, but the patty itself is cooked to death, and the fixings don’t wow. A bowl that combines wild rice, avocado, roasted broccoli, tomato, grilled chicken and Cajun ranch packs in a lot of broccoli (a good thing!) but relies heavily on a lot of dressing for flavor. There are wings, but they’re unremarkable, and coffee, but it feels like an afterthought. There’s also breakfast, but it doesn’t start until 10 a.m. and the Philanthropy Toaster, a sandwich with a fried egg, mayo, arugula, avocado, cheddar and tomato, has an oily taste. The ingredients on the menu sound good, and they sound like they’d be good together, but the result is often disappointing—a fast casual experience reinforced by the plastic silverware, the handful of generic ketchup packets you receive if you ask for some to go with your fries, the greenery wall with Polaroids strung along it. Figure out that the primary audience is college students (late hours, tons of charging ports at every seating area, what seems to be a focus on take-out at the expense of customer service) and the whole thing makes more sense.
Want a vegetable late at night downtown? Philanthropy Fresh will meet your needs, and you may well be less choosy than I was in broad daylight. The restaurant is open from 10 a.m.–11 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday and Sunday, 10 a.m.–2 a.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Like what you just read? Support Flagpole by making a donation today. Every dollar you give helps fund our ongoing mission to provide Athens with quality, independent journalism.
