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COCONUTS HOT SPOT — In the concrete strip of Annapolis in Greenhills, Café 7 Gram’s brightly varnished wooden exterior is hard to miss. Located on the ground floor of one of the street’s older gray low-rise buildings, the fairly new coffee shop definitely calls attention.
Enter the coffee shop and you’d be delighted to see a roomy, sparsely decorated space with nice hiding places — you know, for when you want to be alone, or don’t feel like talking to people. There’s a tall, fake tree right in the middle of the café, which looks and feels like a friendly demarcation of the different areas in the cafe. It’s also a bar that can seat four.
Immediately, you will notice the wooden structure on your right. It’s a double-deck nook that makes for four segregated, low-ceilinged private spaces. Here you can remove your shoes, sit on the carpeted floor, and hang out. There’s a narrow stairs that lead up to the second floor of the nooks — perfect for when you really need your space and/or for people watching.
A little further into the café, past the nooks on the right, are two tables that feel just as private, and because of the wooden structure, feel hidden. Across it, you’ll see that the café’s wall has been torn down, making space for four more (hidden) tables. Because it is way inside the café’s left side, the area is perfect for when you feel like throwing a bitch fit, or for one of those burn booking sessions, to have some me time, or hold secret meetings.
Says the Korean lady who manages Café 7 Gram, this is the kind of coffee joint you’ll find near schools and universities in Korea, where kids and their parents or guardians can go to after school. Its extensive drinks list, which offers a lot of whipped cream topped-cold drinks, should clue you in on that — it can’t anymore be further away from those serious third wave brouhaha.
The cold drinks are served in uber-trendy Mason-esque jars, while the hot ones feature modest latte art. The cold drinks are exactly the type that will please high school and college kids, while the latte art on the hot ones, their mothers.
It seems like food is just an afterthought here. The super short food menu only has four items comprised mainly of sandwiches, but the owners are currently expanding it. It is simple quick lunch fare or after-school merienda that are tasty, straightforward, and filling — nothing that deserves critiquing or whatnot. We suggest you come to this cafe more for its space than its food, though really, the food isn’t terrible.
A wait staff says it’s called Café 7 Gram because 7 grams is the amount of coffee to make for a perfect cup of coffee. It just opened in January, and has remained as easygoing and as hidden as can be. Thank heavens.
Mercedes I Building, 39 Annapolis St, Greenhills, San Juan. 10am-11:30pm. +63 2 7510234.
It’s hard to miss Cafe 7 Gram’s exterior
That’s the tree that marks the cafe’s different areas. On the left, a hidden space like a cave, for bitch fits, private meetings and burn book sessions.
The wooden nooks provide defined private spaces for you and your barkada to hang and chill
The two tables found tucked behind the nooks feel just as private, too
Great for when you want to have that sought after ‘me time’
Cafe 7 Gram’s Cafe Sandwich (PHP180)
Cafe Hotdog (PHP125)
Green tea latte frappuccino (PHP160)
