I LEARNED about the coffee shop's existence through a post on Facebook. It wasn't the food that caught my eye though, it was that it claims to sell stuff for calligraphy. I can't say I'm a collector, but I like writing using fountain pens.
Like technical pens, you can refill them and you use them like forever, and best of all, you do not need to put any weight on them when writing.
These days, when calligraphy is mentioned, chances are there are fountain pens among the stuff being sold. So, there I was, all by my lonesome on a Friday night just before night nanny duties at my best friend's house.
The place is called Spark Coffee + Craft at Paseo de Uno along Ruby Street in Marfori Heights. Ruby is the main road of Marfori, the same street that exits to San Rafael Village in Maa.
Paseo de Uno is that new building at the corner of Opal Street, just before the next block where Green Coffee and Lachi's are. Spark is on the Opal side of Paseo de Uno.
I went in to a near full place. It's small. It has like four tables that can sit two comfortably but can be shared by three, a sala set that can sit four, and a bar set that can sit four.
They have those milk shakes that have cakes and chocolates and macha running down the side. But, I don't like milk shakes, they make my tummy turn.
So I browsed through the sandwich list and saw Spark Sandwich. The attendant, a deep-voiced young man who seems friends with a lot of the customers there, described it as tenderloin tips with gravy on ciabbata bread with melted cheese and egg and their secret sauce on top.
That sounded like a good enough dinner, so I got that, with my boring Iced Americano with no sweetener. The sandwich was good and can be filling for a regular tummy. I say, that for variety, they can also try the concoction with roast beef.
I wanted to enjoy the place some more as nanny duties wasn't until Hafid brought home the kids, so I got dessert, a macha cupcake served with some macha sauce. It was just one small cupcake, just enough to wash out the taste of the sandwich meal. It was moist and doesn't have all those trimmings that cupcakes now have, perfect for me.
Turnover was pretty fast in that place. That's a good start, I say, having heard that the place just opened last Sunday. Over-all? The food is good. I know the shakes are the preferred orders as just about every table had one or two shakes.
But most of all... I like the fact that the walls do not make that echo-y sound that creates a noisy din of all the conversations and coffee grinding going on. Yes, the customers are talking to each other, but the noise doesn't want you to freak out like many coffee shops do. (Yes, coffee shop owners, even the building acoustics matter). How about the craft side?
There are a lot of interesting stuff in there, from those Japanese brush pens to scrapbooks and journals, and yes, Annelo Bags, except that the fountain pens that they have (all Pilot and very affordable at P660 each) only have fine nibs. I like my nibs medium. I hope they get some medium nibs for us fountain pen users...