Morals & Malice: Where Art Meets Alcohol

With interiors designed by world-renowned designer Kenneth Cobonpue and an artistic approach to serving handcrafted drinks, Morals & Malice is a lifestyle destination where art meets alcohol.


It is a stunning establishment composed of two visually arresting spaces featuring distinct identities that will bring both the patron’s experience and the Cebuano's cosmopolitan lifestyle to the next level. Morals is a lounge that will highlight craft coffee and coffee cocktails complemented by an all-day brunch menu while Malice is a bar that advocates a craft cocktail culture that is new in the city.


The newest and most premier lounge and bar is the brainchild of a dynamic group of gentlemen including Paco Rodriguez, Joseph Michael Yu, Glenn Soco and Kenneth Cobonpue. “Morals & Malice was created out of personal experiences we’ve each had abroad that we wanted to bring to Cebu, including a widely-practiced craft cocktail culture, while still keeping in touch with our Cebuano roots. This we do by making use of locally sourced and available ingredients in all our specialty drinks including house infusions not usually found in others. The result is a journey of the senses that starts with the artistic design that speaks volumes of world-class Cebuano creativity to the burst of flavors in each handcrafted signature concoction to the sparkling tropical house and jazz playlist” shares Paco Rodriguez, Morals & Malice’s Marketing and PR Director.

From Morals' refreshingly garden-like features to Malice's striking, cocoon-like setting, the entire place is an art installation in itself and a sensory experience at par with other watering holes around the world.


Morally Exciting

Serving all day brunch and pastries paired with craft coffee, smoothies and coffee cocktails, the 25-square-meter lounge area called Morals gives off a Garden of Eden vibe with accents ingeniously made out of up-cycled blinds. Complete with trees springing from tables and glass walls allowing the afternoon sun to cast its rays, the lounge is an ideal venue for a number of occasions from lunch with the ladies to afternoon meetings, private events and happy hour drinks.


A first for the local scene is Morals’ craft coffee using beans specially chosen by coffee connoisseur and Director Glenn Soco and coffee cocktails, which are harmoniously blended cups of caffeine with a hint of alcohol. "We use customized blends from the top coffee producing countries in the world - Brazil and Indonesia as we want our clientele to taste the best coffee from the East and the West. The Brazilian Light Roast blend is best paired with our desserts while the Indonesian Dark Roast blend has a full bodied flavor used for our coffee cocktails” Soco shares.

Some of Morals’ house specialties are the Pumped Spice Latte, crafted white pumpkin rum with coffee liqueur and steamed milk topped with whipped cream and a dash of cinnamon; Crema de Manga, a smoothie made of fresh Cebu mango with oatmeal cookies and cream cheese; and Morally Tea, lemon grass-infused black tea with local citrus calamansi honey.

Complementing a cozy ambiance and a perfect blend of drinks is Morals’ soothing jazz music. When the sun sets, it’s time to leave your morals at the door and transition to Malice.


Maliciously Thrilling

On the other side of the spectrum is Malice, a 90-square-meter bar that immediately commands attention with its remarkable design. The bar that was first created a decade ago remains classic and timeless to this day. The organic cocoon, created using steel and hand-tied bamboo with rattan, is Kenneth Cobonpue’s first full-scale organic installation complemented by a lit onyx flooring by Architect Ed Calma.

Immortalising nature, the space has been lauded and recognised by a stream of publications abroad which makes a true affirmation of the bar being a design gem in Cebu.

“I designed this ten years ago, but it looks like it could have been designed yesterday because it was rooted in nature and not in any particular style. The hand-tied bamboo is made to simulate molecules when they transfer from one state to of matter to another and at night glows like fireflies," explained Cobonpue, an inspiration that the designer is all too familiar with and which he is renowned around the globe for.


As craft blends are already a hit in Europe, Malice is set to be Cebu’s purveyor of great libations by bringing a taste of this budding culture to the city with its wide selection of handcrafted, signature cocktails, which are made from plant-based home infusions and local ingredients created exclusively for the bar by one of Manila’s best mixologists Kalel Demetrio and bar consultant Lee Watson.

"We have a lot of infusions aside from the usual syrups and these were made from scratch by our mixologist. Most of the ingredients are endemic in Cebu and he started creating Malice’s original mixes from there," shared Operations and Finance Director Joseph Michael Yu.

Equally intriguing and exquisite, a few of Malice’s signature craft cocktails that tickle and tease the palate include Fall of Adam, a concoction of muddled Granny Smith apples, rosemary syrup, Bombay gin, cilantro liqueur, honey, lemon juice finish with peach; Pomelo Spiced Mojito, Bacardi Silver rum, ginger syrup, mint, lime and citrus soda topped with pomelo; Burning Bush, ginger liqueur, fig syrup, Yoichi single malt whisky, Makers Mark bourbon, salinated herb, lemon and a burnt rosemary twig; and Oro de Plata, a golden silver mocktail treat with fresh mango goodness, basil, a hint of ginger and fizz to finish.

Malice regularly plays Top 40 hits and a relatively new genre, tropical house music, which is a Caribbean, relaxed version of the Electronic Dance Music, or EDM, perfectly suited for the tropical paradise that is Cebu.

Morals & Malice is a lifestyle destination that exudes just that— morally creative concepts and art in its many forms, infused with just the right amount of playful malice. May it be a day to lounge over coffee or a night out with friends over cocktails, good times will always start with the question, “Are you going to Morals or Malice?"

Morals & Malice is Cebu's premier lounge and bar where art meets alcohol. It is located at the 2/F of Tinderbox along Archbishop Reyes Avenue, Banilad, Cebu City. Morals lounge is open everyday from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Malice bar is open from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. on weekdays and until 3 a.m. on weekends.

Find the latest news and promos by liking “Morals and Malice” page on Facebook at www.facebook.com/moralsandmalice and at @moralsandmalice on Instagram.

For inquiries and reservations, contact (032) 412-1922, 0915.200.7625 or email inquiries@moralsandmalice.com.