Introduction to CTRL Z Coffee
BRIDGEPORT — A coffee company serving Filipino-inspired drinks and treats has opened a Bridgeport cafe after getting its start in a Washington Park business incubator program.
CTRL Z Coffee opened in June at 2911 S. Loomis Ave., where owner Zandro Zafra serves baked goods and lattes flavored with pandan and ube, inspired by his childhood growing up in the Philippines.
The cafe is one of Zafra’s three businesses, including Mano Modern Cafe in West Town and the to-be-opened Kapwa Bakery & Cafe in suburban Niles. But the Bridgeport location also serves as the home base for CTRL Z’s coffee supply business, sourcing coffee to his other shops and stocking the brand’s line of coffee beans.
“What we’re trying to do is have a centralized thing where we supply for each other,” he said. “We supply the coffee to our bakery, and then we supply our bread” products to the cafe.
The Cafe Experience
The space is a small, one-room cafe with knee-high seating and barstools along the walls. Zafra calls it a slow bar — a place for neighbors to relax and catch up with one another.
“You take your time and have your coffee. We don’t have a lot of tables for laptops. We designed it this way so people can actually talk to each other,” he said.
CTRL Z Coffee opened in June at 2911 S. Loomis Ave. in Bridgeport. Credit: Reema Saleh/ For Block Club Chicago
Unique Offerings
The coffee shop opened as Filipino eateries are surging in popularity, thanks in part to places like Kanin and Del Sur Bakery in Ravenswood. CTRL Z is the only Chicago cafe roasting Filipino Liberica beans, or Barako coffee, where you can smell mango, jackfruit and cigar tobacco flavors, Zafra said.
Alongside the coffee sit sweet and savory breakfast items, like pan de coco, pan de ube and ube crinkles. Ube is a purple sweet potato common in Filipino desserts.
The Owner’s Journey
Despite running two coffee shops, Zafra didn’t always like coffee. As a teenager, he was put off by the terrible-tasting coffee that priests would make in seminary school. But working long hours as a wedding photographer sparked a love for it, as he was fueled by coffee. During the day, Zafra edited photos in coffee shops like Ten Drops Coffee in suburban Plainfield, where he spent so much time that the owner taught him how to make cold brew.
“I started going to third-wave coffee shops, and they actually make coffee the right way — measuring everything, not burning the coffee,” he said.
When the pandemic wiped out Zafra’s wedding shoots, he spent his days delivering homemade cold brew to neighbors in Plainfield. He moved to selling coffee online before joining a residency program with the Rebuild Foundation, running a physical cafe in Washington Park’s Currency Exchange building for nearly two years.
Getting the space to run a business without much risk pushed him toward finding a brick-and-mortar shop for himself, he said. Zafra lived in Bridgeport while operating his Currency Exchange residency, and decided he wanted to join the neighborhood’s coffee shop scene.
“It’s always been in my head — opening a shop here,” he said. “It’s like a mental thing for me: This is the place I want to have a coffee shop at.”
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