You may not know Ana De Ocampo all that much, but all bets are on you knowing how darn good Wildflour Café and Bakery has always been. Too good that it keeps you brunching.
Remember that time you lined up (with what, 100 others?) for freshly baked, piping hot cronuts in their BGC branch? How about that rainy morning you spent sipping warm, tangy tomato soap and gnawing on grilled cheese in their cold but welcoming Legaspi branch? Ana, with co-owners Margarita—her sister—and Walter Manzke, have made sure that moments like these at Wildfour stick out like an unfulfilled craving since its inception in 2013.
Wildflour was built from wanting to share an experience. From being a small coffee shop concept to a full-blown establishment that offers more than a few pastries and sandwiches, it has become the go-to place for high noon talk. Despite its size, Wildflour retains the spirit of being “a little café in the corner” that reminded sisters Ana and Margarita of their frequented space back in LA.
Here’s the thing: this café didn’t bring brunch back—it never went away. Instead, it made the midday meal just extra chic. Ana believes the brunch culture is not new in the Philippines. She asks us to remember how we spend our weekends, how we always spend an extra hour or two for sleeping in and eventually gathering with friends and family for a late breakfast that extends to daytime cocktails. The recent boom of brunch places like Wildflour just makes the gathering a wee bit fancier.
So what’s Ana’s ideal brunch? “A good French toast with bacon. It has to be unforgettable. The bread has to be moist, crisp on the edges, not at all soggy, golden brown in color with a delicious custard taste, with a side of bacon,” she says. “It sounds like bread dipped in butter. Anybody can make French toast but not everybody can make it well.”
And when someone does it make it well, you have to hurry and go get it. Not only does a mere slice of buttery bread fill you in the morning, “it nourishes… satisfies you in the middle [of the day], and at the end of [it], it comforts you,” Ana says.
Maybe that’s why we keep coming back to this not-so-little café in places that are more than humble corners.
Photo by Patrick Diokno
Source: Marbbie Tagabucba for Southern Living, “Bread and Butter,” August 2015.
