My friend and I had just come back from city tour of Iloilo, but since it was still relatively early we went in search for other places of interest in the city. We did, after all, only have a little over twenty-four hours to spend in Iloilo – we knew that we had to make the most of our time there.
A couple of things popped up but since the both of us were coffee lovers, it was decided that we were to check out Fuel.PH in the Jaro West Diversion Road. Aside from the irresistible lure of specialty coffee, the images of the place that popped up during the initial Internet search were entirely too enticing.
I don’t think that it’s a popular mainstream destination as of yet – both the nice attendant at the hotel and the cabbie we hired to take us there didn’t know where it was located. Thank goodness the cabbie was nice enough to actually help us look because signages were minimal. The one and only sign we saw was a very small banner in an alley between the Kia service shop and the Globe customer service center in the Diversion road. If we weren’t driving slowly we wouldn’t even have seen it.
I actually doubted if we were at the right place because it didn’t look like the place where a coffee shop would stand and operate. We were in a strip of automobile service centers; maybe the Fuel.PH banner was pertaining to something automobile related?
Continuing on with our mini adventure, we entered the little alley that was surrounded by warehouses. I thought we were going hit a dead end until we looked to our right and was greeted by the coffee shop’s interesting looking entrance.
And if there’s one word to describe Fuel.PH’s interiors, that’d be ‘interesting’. Dark wooden chairs and tables were spread out in the tiny space and fairy lights were strung up on the wall. Framed pictures of album covers adorned one wall while the brick walls on the other side were left interestingly bare.
If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that the proprietors would rather keep their location a secret. It was a Thursday afternoon but apart from the baristas and ourselves, there were only two other customers – students who looked like they were on a date.
This was the type of place where mason jars were plentiful; even their service water jug was a mason jar.
At the far end of the room laid their architectural piece d’ resistance: a specialty coffee brewing station. I don’t know why we didn’t get to try it, but for some reason I contented myself with getting a latte and a cookie while my friend had one of their fruit smoothies. Their coffee was strong and in retrospect something that I probably shouldn’t have ordered so late in the afternoon (I had a hard time sleeping that night).
We settled into the nook strewn by small throw pillows and covered by a red carpet.
There were books and other knick-knacks but we gravitated towards the sungka board. There were no shells but the baristas gave us coffee beans to use for our game.
We played three rounds while discussing the sci-fi film Ex-Machina. It truly was one of the more hipster afternoons I’ve spent in my life. I wonder if there’s a place like this in Manila. Hmm.
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Iloilo Jaro West Diversion Road, Mandurriao, Iloilo City, Iloilo
