(Caratreats Cafe Facebook Page)
For this young K-pop fan, Seventeen became one of the inspirations that pushed her to launch a Seventeen-inspired café at age 19.
“[Seventeen] have made me feel the powerful bond of sympathy through their songs and lyrics, which brighten every day of my life. I got deeply invested in their content and never stopped supporting them,” Iris Garcia, the owner of Caratreats Cafe told the PressOne.PH.
Opened on Aug. 5, 2020 in Dasmariñas, Cavite, the café’s name was derived from the word “Carat,” the fandom name of Seventeen, and the word “treats.”
Garcia said the idea of a café came after her family started cooking and baking at home for their neighbors to cope up with anxiety brought by the Covid-19 have pandemic.
“My parents and I had to decide what to do with our last budget in the middle of a pandemic, with our first business slightly failing. We thought, why not food? It’s something that everyone constantly wants and needs and we learned that people around us loved what we made,” she added.
Garcia said she didn’t want to make the cafe a typical fast food place. The café is decorated with photocards, albums, posters and other merch dedicated to the 13 members of Seventeen – S.Coups, Wonwoo, Mingyu, Vernon, Woozi, Jeonghan, Joshua, DK, Seungkwan, Hoshi, Jun, The8, and Dino.
The dish sizes are named after Won or Wonwoo (3-5 pax), Coup or S.Coups (6-8 pax), and Sol or Hansol (10-12 pax).
Best-selling dishes in their menu include Creamy Prawn Pasta, Baked Kimchi Fried Rice, Baked Red Pasta, Carat Cake and Seventeen-inspired drinks dubbed “Carat Milktea,” “Carat Pop,” and “Babo Latte.” Jade Veronique V. Yap