Sourdough Café celebrates 7th anniversary with The Misfits Camp collaboration

Pictured: Sam Alapan (Creative Mentor), King Esguerra (Divergent creative), Mike Lee (Sourdough Cafe Owner) and Merlee Jayme (The Misfits Camp Founder).

Sourdough Café partners with The Misfits Camp to give divergent creative King Esguerra a platform to showcase his art and turn his talent into opportunity.

What does a café do when it turns seven? Introduce new dishes, offer anniversary treats, maybe throw a party.

For its seventh anniversary, Sourdough Café decided to celebrate with something more: a partnership with The Misfits Camp and an opportunity for one divergent creative to put his work out into the world.

Meet King Esguerra, a neurodivergent artist from The Misfits Camp who has loved sketching and painting since childhood. He can draw portraits and many different subjects, but there is one thing he especially loves to illustrate: food.

It was a natural match.

The Misfits Camp happens to be just a few steps away from Sourdough Café’s Perea branch in Makati. After dining at the café with his mentors, King found himself inspired by the food around him. From freshly baked bread and cups of coffee to dishes he loves and others he would like to try, they soon became subjects for his illustrations.

For Sourdough Café’s seventh anniversary, King created a special collection inspired by the café and his love for food. His original artworks are now being showcased at Sourdough Café and will be available for sale until the end of September.

His illustrations are also featured in an exclusive anniversary sticker pack, giving more people a chance to discover and take home his work.

The collaboration is exactly the kind of opportunity The Misfits Camp was created to make possible.

The Misfits Camp is a creative training program that upskills neurodivergent adults with creative talent and connects them to sustainable opportunities in the creative industry. Beyond developing their skills, the goal is to help divergent creatives find real pathways through employment, commissioned projects, freelance work and design.

For founder Merlee Jayme, the collaboration with King shows what can happen when businesses open their doors to diverse creative talent.

“This is exactly one of our goals at The Misfits Camp: to connect our divergent creatives to real opportunities like this and open up sustainable possibilities for their future,” says Jayme.

“King’s work being seen, appreciated, and supported is what we hope to make possible for more of our creatives. Thank you to Sourdough Café, Mike Lee, and his marketing team led by EG Bautista for believing in their talent and giving it a place at the table.”

King’s work is not being showcased simply because he has autism. It is being showcased because he is an artist with talent, a distinctive point of view, and something joyful to share.

And that distinction matters.

For many neurodivergent adults, developing a skill is only part of the journey. They also need opportunities to use that skill, meet collaborators, build a body of work and earn from what they create. This is why The Misfits Camp believes inclusion should go beyond awareness. It should lead to actual work and sustainable possibilities.

Seven years, celebrated differently
Sourdough Café’s anniversary still comes with plenty of reasons for food lovers to celebrate, including new pizzas, butters, cheesecakes and anniversary specials.

But among all the food on the table this year is something unexpected: the work of an artist who really, really loves drawing it.

For Sourdough Café, it is a different way to mark seven years.

For The Misfits Camp, it is another door opened for divergent creativity.

And for King, it is a chance for more people to see what he can do, appreciate it, and perhaps wonder where his art will take him next.