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in good taste: subspace coffee house

If you are a fan of K-pop and the Koreans’ adventurous sense of style, you’ll absolutely love the new Subspace Coffee House in Ortigas.

Owned by Wilmer Lopez and Thor Balanon, the duo behind the hip home and lifestyle store Space Encounters, Subspace was created with two things in mind: 1) to have a setting where their clients can see how their funky vintage pieces can be used for commercial applications, and 2) to have a venue where they, especially Thor, can celebrate their love for coffee, design, and K-pop.

Their trip to Seoul last year inspired their design for the coffee shop. Similar to Korean fashion, the interior of Subspace is cute, edgy, nostalgic, geeky and quirky all at the same time. Their colorful pieces from Space Encounters like the Papa Bear loveseat and the Wishbone chairs are arranged in an industrial setting of plain white paint, unfinished concrete surfaces, retractable iron grilles, and exposed pipes and ducting. K-pop and Korean vintage posters are mixed with mid-century accessories, and space science details.

It’s interesting that instead of using them as chairs, the Wishbone were hanging above the dining area (photo above)! Thor explained that they were supposed to demonstrate anti-gravity. Clever!

Subspace also features Korean films and concerts. But instead of installing a TV, they simply installed a small projector and used a portion of one wall as their screen.

Of course, it wouldn’t be coffee shop without coffee! Thor suggested for us to try their Sweet Purple Potato Latte (flavored coffee popular in Korea), Iced Lemon Green Tea, Nebula Coffee Jelly, a couple of cupcakes, and samples of their chocolates. Everything was delicious!

Their Sweet Purple Potato Latte (which I call ube coffee for short) is my favorite. It was perfect for that rainy afternoon. Lilli and Green Guide loved the green tea. We enjoyed everything! Too bad Ana, our “coffee connoisseur”, wasn’t able to join us.

Subspace Coffee House is now open! Visit them at Unit 103, GF Grand Emerald Tower, F. Ortigas Jr. Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig. Also checkout their facebook page here for more photos of their food items.

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