Cubao Expo Ukay, Vinyl and Antique Shops to Browse

For Cubao Expo ukay, start at WCHA Fashion Haus for pre-loved clothes, shoes and bags, then cross to Good Vibrations Records for vinyl and John's Antique Shop for old komiks, typewriters and radios. Browsing costs nothing, the shops are about 2 minutes apart, and their closing times run from 7 PM to 10:30 PM, which decides the order.

The shops, by what they sell

Pre-loved clothing. WCHA Fashion Haus is a vintage shop with pre-loved clothes, shoes and bags. It is open from 10 AM to 8:30 PM daily, Mondays included.

Vinyl. Good Vibrations Records is a vinyl shop with a listening room and a small bar. It is open from 1 PM to 10:30 PM, Tuesday to Sunday, and it is free to enter. The bar means a browse here can turn into a first drink.

Antiques. John's Antique Shop has old komiks, typewriters and radios. It is open from noon to 7 PM daily and is also free to enter.

Streetwear. The Twelfth House carries local labels and has a café inside. It sits on the same lap as the secondhand shops. It is open 11 AM to 9 PM, until 9:30 PM on Fridays and Saturdays, and closed Mondays, as of 2024.

Zines and prints. Favorite Edition sells zines, prints and stickers by local artists on consignment. Check its page for hours before you count on it.

Art to look at. Pablo Galleries shows contemporary Filipino art from noon to 7 PM, Tuesday to Saturday. It is closed on Sundays and Mondays.

An order that beats the closing times

The shops do not close together, so the lap has a right direction. Starting at 5 PM:

1. John's Antique Shop and Pablo Galleries first. Both shut at 7 PM.
2. WCHA Fashion Haus next, before 8:30 PM.
3. The Twelfth House after that, before 9 PM.
4. Good Vibrations Records last. It runs until 10:30 PM and has the bar.

Allow about fifteen minutes a shop and thirty for the gallery. All five take under two hours with no rushing, and any two fill the gap between dinner and a drink.

Using a shop as a free in-between stop

A good night puts a short stop between dinner and a drink so the evening is not one long sit, and a shop is the cheapest in-between stop there is. Three ways to use one:

• Before dinner. Arrive at 6 PM, give the antique shop and the gallery their last hour, then eat. Habanero Kitchen Bar and Best of Luck are in the same compound.
• After an early dinner. Bellini's closes at 9:30 PM, which leaves an hour at the vinyl shop before it shuts at 10:30 PM.
• On a first date. A shelf of old radios gives two strangers something to point at. It also gives either of them an easy way to wind things up when the shop closes.

For coffee during the lap, The Brewman Coffee is open until 11 PM from Tuesday to Sunday, and the streetwear store has its own café.

Mondays, Sundays and rain

Monday is the wrong day for this. Only the pre-loved shop and the antique shop are open, and the vinyl shop, the streetwear store and the gallery are all closed. On Sundays only the gallery is closed.

Every shop here is indoors, so rain only matters on the way between doors.

What to pair it with

The compound's restaurants, bars and cafés, with every door's hours in one list, are in the Cubao Expo guide. A timed evening that uses the shops as its second stop is in what to do in Cubao Expo on a first date, and the longer version with a gallery, dinner and a speakeasy is a Cubao Expo date night, stop by stop. If browsing is the main event, the night-out planner's Gallery Wanderer type is built around nights like this. The rest of the area is in the Cubao date night guide.