Bean Belt Coffee is a nice and cozy little coffee shop
located at the heart of Manila’s university belt that you definitely ought to
visit if you are ever near the corner of
Dapitan and Don Quijote Streets. And
even if you are nowhere near, making an effort to try the place out may prove
worthwhile. Saying this up front may seem like front-loading this review, but I
don’t want to waste a thousand words for something I can say in far fewer!
Bean Belt, in many respects is an off-shoot of the iconic
Tinapayan Festival Bake Shop—which has become a modern-day landmark in the Sampaloc, Manila area for certain
circles. My hubby is much more familiar with Tinapayan and the legend behind it
and so, I’ll leave it up to him to write an article about it sometime soon.
Anyway, Bean Belt came to exist through the sweat and tears
of 19 year old Elclaro Chavez (with a little help from his parents, Chito and
Belen), who envisioned and then micro-managed the whole coffee shop-building
process. By this, I mean he literally selected the coffee beans to be used, designed
the whole menu, picked-out the cups & plates and, even dictated how his
caffeine station’s interiors should look!
Bean Belt Coffee opened its doors over a year ago and has
since steadily built-up a customer base consisting of college students, nearby
residents and others who simply must have first-class coffee. It was upon the
request of its frequent patrons that Elclaro decided to expand his shop’s menu.
Not that his menu was inadequate, but some customers insisted on having lunch
and dinner there!
The expanded menu is not yet available as of this writing,
but it should be next month if not sooner. Miguel and I were invited by Elclaro
last Thursday (June 8) to try out the new dishes that he and his consultants
have been putting together. Have a look now, and then perhaps, you might want
to have a taste later!
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