Coffee Afternoons

I’d like to make it clear that I’m not reviewing the coffee shop. I love eating and I love coffee, but I really don’t know the first thing about doing food or restaurant reviews. I really just want to talk about the way I spend some afternoons (usually the ones after payday 😉 ) because I think it’s a nice way to spend an afternoon.

My work doesn’t start until late afternoon so I have some time after lunch to do some things. Usually they’re chores, but sometimes I find time to do some reading. I’ve been trying to read more books recently, just for self-improvement and all that, but every time I try to read a book in bed before going to sleep, I end up falling asleep and not making any progress on my book at all. Also, I leave the night light open until morning, which is an addition to our electric bill that we could certainly do without. So, I decided it would be better to just go to a coffee shop to read.

banana nutella pancakes, iced mocha, menu, window

I don’t know why, but books and coffee go really well together, don’t they?

I went to Press Cafe, which is at the ground floor of the Fully Booked building in Alabang Town Center. It opened fairly recently and I’m really happy about it. A few years ago I said that the only thing missing in Alabang was a Fully Booked branch and viola! The world of consumerism answered my call. When I saw it being constructed I wondered if they’d put a Starbucks branch in it like they did at The Fort. I thought that would be good because the Starbucks branch in ATC is already too crowded. But they didn’t. And instead, they put something better. 😀

I’m not saying I don’t like Starbucks. I love it. I do. But it’s everywhere. It’s as everywhere as McDonald’s is so it’s real easy to get sick of it. There is actually a Starbucks that’s walking distance from my office and my officemates and I usually go there during our break. So when I’m in ATC, I try not to go to Starbucks. I used to go to The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, but again, its only “advantage” over Starbucks is that it doesn’t have a branch near my office. Other than that, it’s almost as common as Starbucks. There used to be a Seattle’s Best Coffee branch in ATC, but for some reason they closed and were replaced with a Mary Grace Cafe, which is a shame, because Seattle’s Best Coffee actually makes my favorite coffee. And I like Mary Grace Cafe, too, but they don’t have that many choices for coffee, and I think most people really go there for the food so the atmosphere is more of like you’re in a restaurant. My friend told me that Magnum Opus Fine Coffees in BF Paranaque is great, and I visited it and I loved it, but since I don’t live in BF Paranaque, it’s way out of the way for me to go there regularly. I have to take a tricycle and everything. So, I am incredibly grateful that Press Cafe is finally around. And Fully Booked.

Press Cafe has delicious coffee, pastries and savory foods, too. And I don’t think many people have discovered it yet because there’s so far always a free table whenever I go there. And the staff are quite nice and the other customers aren’t too noisy and it has a nice view of the street outside… It’s perfect! Actually, it has a very “real” coffee shop feel. I don’t exactly know how to describe it. I mean that, Starbucks is just so commercialized that if you’re there reading a book, it actually feels like you’re out of place. Not in Press Cafe. Though I guess it helps that they’re on the ground floor of a bookstore.

Actually, there’s an Illy Cafe inside PowerBooks and that’s a good alternative to Starbucks, too. But they don’t have the nice street view that Press Cafe has. Though I love Illy coffee, too so maybe I’ll go there next time. 🙂