My fave coffees at Craft Katipunan, still.

Months after my first visit to Craft Katipunan, I enjoyed a series of coffee dates with my friends, meetings, family brunches, and solo time(out) there. Sometime between all that I was assigned to write about the surge of specialty and/or 3rd wave coffee places for a women's fashion and lifestyle monthly glossy magazine. That was a dream assignment for me, but there was a catch: out of the several, I was only given a spread (two full pages) for both the story and photos. I had to choose just three or four. I ended up writing about 5 that I could visit within my deadline, but squeezed in a sidebar for the other shops I couldn't (there have been shops opening almost every month since the "re-birth" of coffee). Naturally, I included Craft Katipunan.


An excerpt of what I wrote:

"You know your business is a hit if it survives in Katipunan, the area where a concept is tried out, tested, and either approved or discarded as “loser” by the snobbery one can ironically get from the open-to-adventure academic communities of the area. Since its opening, and in spite of its relatively high price points, this franchise of Craft in New Manila, owned by Mark Jao, his wife Jennifer, and his sister, has been checked out and apparently given a stamp of approval. Probably because it’s cozy, or because they have a full menu beyond coðee, and even a smoking area outside, butdefinitely because they serve very good cof- fee—the place is almost always filled, even on school holidays and weekends"

note: Check out "Coffee Crawl" in Metro Magazine, June 2014 issue.

Mark Jao, one of Craft Katipunan's owners

My husband's favorite all-day breakfast dish

The place has since proven that it's a good coffee place because it's still around, still gets filled out, and has a lot of followers on instagram. I enjoy their iced Americano when it's sweltering or after a bike ride or long walk, and their pourovers when I go there for a quiet couple of hours with a book.

Craft Katipunan's Americano

Craft's Pourover, I think this was the Ethiopian Yirgacheffe.

I love staying at the bar when I'm alone.

Iced Americano, which I usually have in their al fresco area on cooler evenings.

The way the pallet wall looks now.

Other coffee places have opened in the area, so there's no doubt the group's timing was right to open in the neighborhood.  Others have closed, so there's this other thought that it's not just about coffee, timing and location, but about a certain mix I'm still trying to put a finger on. 

Javajiving with Craft Katipunan's Mark Jao.

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Craft Coffee Revolution, please stay in Katipunan.