As the big and heavy raindrops
are starting to pour on our roof on this windy and rainy Friday, the 4th of
July 2014, I start to make this late blog. So, where do I begin?
Hmmm, let me see...
It was your usual Saturday
afternoon. After I have finished taking some pictures for my previous blog (Salcedo
Community Market), I decided to stroll around the area close to our office to
get some inspiration and luckily take some additional shots for my June post.
Most photographers will say that mid day light is not advisable when taking
pictures mainly due to the harsh light that the sun produces. There is also a
reason why mid day time is not so popular with photographers—because it’s hot
during that time of the day. It was about past 1 am and I was slowly beginning
to feel the harsh heat as I was taken farther away by my wandering from the
cool breeze of the Greenbelt 1 aircon, walking without a certain path or plan.
As it was a Saturday and early afternoon, mostly all of the people nearby are
inside relaxing or laboriously working to meet their deadlines for workers who
are on overtime. For me, I was roasting at the scorching sun. The heat was also
starting to take toll on my cool and patience on looking for a subject to take
photographs. Even so, I simply wandered and wandered until I discovered this
place. The Yardstick Coffee.
Yardstick Coffee was an odd looking
place. It seems like both a cafe of some sort and a sanctuary for a person who
loves a quiet place to relax. Outside appearance is plain and simple—you would
never guess what evidently the place is for at first glance. At the side of the
entrance, the words will tell you that they sell coffee. Coffee will dehydrate
me even further but the tempting allure of the aircon have opted me to check
the place out.
As I entered, I was clueless on
where to go. On “conventional” coffee shops where at the first two seconds of
stepping inside you can definitely tell where the ordering area, cashier and waiting area
are, it seems that they have taken the approach differently here. The cashier
was the easiest to spot on but the espresso machine took me another five to ten
minutes to discern. There are two espresso machines available and surprisingly
open to the curious and fiddly hands of the customers.
I went straight to the corner of
the place which I believe was the cashier. The first thing that she asked me
was if I was in the seminar that will be held in a few minutes. I thought to
myself, “What the hell, I think I’m in the wrong place”. I further asked the
staff for some queries just to be sure that I was at the right place. After a
few Q&A portion from the staff, I realized that they offer seminars on
coffee-related matters which is also the reason why their espresso machine is
placed on an unorthodox setup. Seminar ranges from an hour to two on basic
knowledge to more comprehensive workshops when one can try to make a coffee at
his/her delight.
I’m not here to learn anything
about coffee—I’m simply here to grab some coffee and borrow some time of their
aircon—so I’ll pass for now. The remaining minutes of educating myself on what’s
inside the shop still didn’t relieve me of the scorching heat outside so I
decided to order one of their cold drink. I sat myself on the far right of the
place and started to enjoy the aircon first—then my drink eventually. This
place is plain and simple in a good way. The ceiling and walls are all in White,
wooden tables and seats have a modern design and feel—a (real) small plant is
placed at every table. No framed pictures, no neon or ornamental lights no
intricate or eye-catching wall art, no fuss—I like it.
"This place is plain and simple in a good way."
Assorted reading materials are
near my seat to savour which is nice if you don’t have a book to sink-in while
seeping some hot cup of Joe. A back door is also nearby some steps away at my
seat which is supposed to be the back door of a separate restaurant named Your
Local.
 |
| 12-Hour Cold Brew Tea (Php 160.00) |
As I intently wait for my cold
drink, I can see the staff preparing several coffee drinks for other customers.
It was an unusual sensation but I like how the setup works. It gives the
feeling of intimacy and respect to the drink itself (or am I simply imagining
things—again). It makes you see every step of the process with your own eyes
with amazement (or am I simply too shallow—again). It’s obviously SOP for the
staff and other coffee shops, but it lets you feel attached to the cup of
coffee—not as detached when waiting for your order of coffee with a barrier
obviously done to make a gap between the baristas, the machine, the coffee and
the customer (there is a purpose for that though). If you are the curious one
just like me, it’s a wonderful experience for just one time sit closely next to
the barista in a high chair as he/she makes your order and see how it’s done at
a close proximity, sense the aromatic scent of their coffee variety and lastly
observe how they make the common but taken for granted leaf design at the top.
As I said, it’s a sanctuary for
coffee drinkers (or I could say “coffee consumers”—people who treat coffee as a
regular drink) but it also caters coffee drinkers who value the coffee itself,
the taste and the hard work that comes with it. It’s also a good place to learn
new things about coffee and stuff— just be prepared for the money and English
vocabulary skills that it will clearly require (or simply nod during the
seminar). As the old and well-established foreign coffee brands here in the
Philippines are becoming ever so common and somewhat conventional, it’s good
that there are some coffee shops that has the courage to do things in a
different perspective in very nonconformist ways that pretty much works—and
amazingly it’s a local brand.
"...it’s good that there are some coffee shops that has the courage to do things in a different perspective in very nonconformist ways that pretty much works..."
 |
| The espresso machine, cashier and pastry area are all apart. |
I wanted to try some of their
coffee in their line-up but the seminar was already done and the attendees were
now loitering around the cashier area which honestly made me a bit nervous—add
up the fine late afternoon weather which was rather telling me that rain is
looming. Over and hour or two had passed already without me knowing it, which was not
surprising at all since I enjoyed staying. The other drinks will come my way
next time—maybe a cold rainy day or just a lazy breezy afternoon. Who knows,
we’ll see.
And not surprisingly the next day
(which was also a Saturday), I did visit Yardstick Coffee again. Here are some of
the additional photos that I took.
 |
| Mocha Deconstructed (Php 190.00) |
 |
| You literally get a "deconstructed" mocha drink. |
 |
| Quite simple but nice education of a basic Mocha drink. |
 |
| I like how they approach the much-loved Mocha drink. Bottoms up! |
 |
| View from my seat. At the far left you can see the back door for Your Local which is just beside Yardstick Coffee. A tad move to the left is the area for coffee-related seminars. |
Yardstick Coffee
Universal LMS Building, 106 Esteban Street, Legaspi Village, Makati City, Philippines
Monday-Saturday 8:00am-10:00pm, Sunday 8:00am-6:00pm
hello@yardstickcoffee.com
(+63) 845-0073
(+63) 917-7236079
fb page: Yardstick
Please look forward to my next blog entry! Ikimashou!
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