Why go
Retail shelf beside the counter
Andre Chanco keeps the retail shelf close to the counter as Co-Founder of Yardstick in Legazpi Village, Makati, Philippines, where the cafe works as both a coffee bar and a roaster’s front room. Yardstick has described itself as a specialty coffee roaster since 2013, and that date matters here because the house is not built only around cups leaving the pass. Chanco has led the company’s retail and roasting operations, along with the showroom, training and coffee-education work that sits beside service. The station is therefore part cafe, part supply line, part classroom. Beans move from the roasting program into home bags, restaurant accounts, hotel accounts and cafe accounts, while the counter gives the same coffees a daily public test. That is the lineage the room shows: not a borrowed pedigree, but time on the tools inside one company, with the shelf, the brew bar and the training table kept in the same conversation.
Single origins, Secret Stash, and a teaching program
The coffee program at Yardstick is arranged with a roaster’s vocabulary rather than a cafe’s shorthand. Espresso, Filter, Blends, Single Origin, Secret Stash, Nespresso-Compatible Capsules and Drip Bags all sit within the retail structure, which means the guest sees the program by use, not just by origin. Current coffees named by the house include Finca de Garces Natural Espresso, Secret Stash: Nova Red Bourbon, Secret Stash: Quebraditas Anaerobic Sidra, Bona Zuria Natural and Finca de Garces Natural Catimor. Some of the method is carried in the names themselves: Natural, Anaerobic, Catimor, Sidra, Bourbon. The rest lands in the way Yardstick extends the cup into gear, accessories, gifts, merch, events and workshops. This is not a room where education is tacked on after service. It is part of the program. A drink can begin at the counter and continue as a bag of beans, a brew guide, a subscription, or a workshop seat, with Chanco’s retail and roasting work holding those pieces together.
A modern room with the roaster in view
The Esteban Street cafe, inside the Universal LMS Building, carries the polish of a specialty coffee showroom without losing the warmth of counter service. The room is described by its own orbit as refined and welcoming, with modern design and a strong focus on craftsmanship and education. That combination gives the place its tempo. Conversation can stay at table height. The counter still does the directing. Bags, capsules and gear make the roasting program visible before a cup is ordered, and the workshops keep the bench-side language close to the public face of the brand. In a medium-sized room, that matters: the guest is not asked to separate drinking coffee from learning how the coffee was roasted, packed, brewed and taken home.
No. 34 with the work still at the bench
Yardstick’s wider signal came through The World’s 100 Best Coffee Shops, where the Makati cafe placed No. 34 worldwide in 2026 after No. 18 in 2025, with the Inquirer noting it as the only Philippine coffee shop included that year. The number is useful because it points back to the work rather than away from it. Chanco’s place remains the Esteban Street counter, the retail shelf, the training program and named coffees such as Secret Stash: Quebraditas Anaerobic Sidra.
