Words Gellaine Marie Burgos, with the Kanto team
Images Novelle Studio (Born in Bread)
Approached from either direction along Commission Civil Street, where Jaro’s traffic runs thick between the schools and the subdivisions, the second Born in Bread bakery-restaurant gives away only as much as its curved window openings allow. Cut at half the height of the wall, they frame the interior in fragments: a shoulder at the counter, the top of a cake display, the movement of a server carrying plates. The façade commandeers its own symmetry as a veil to be unraveled, keeping the rest for when you finally enter its doors.
That the bakery arrived at a second location at all owes to a run of successful small-batch bakes. Self-taught baker Julia Gimenez started with cookies and croissants, and the following that gathered around them stayed as much for the company as for what emerged from her oven. A first shop opened on the Riverside Strip along Pacencia T. Pison Avenue in Mandurriao, then drinks and full meals, then three years during which the place turned into a spot where people lingered. The maiden branch works at volume: tables set close together against a wall of red-orange, with seats both within and outside the store. The Jaro branch’s task, which opened in March 2026, was to build on the atmosphere Mandurriao had grown on its own, while carving out a dedicated nook for patrons after an unhurried bite.
Gimenez brought the project to architect Gellaine Marie Burgos of Good Made Better Architecture + Design, based in Iloilo City, with a phrase as a design brief: brunch in bold colors. Handed an L-shaped, 135-square-meter shell bound by commercial building code, Burgos let its rigid geometry set the order for everything that followed.
Burgos placed Born in Bread’s entrance on the side street, which left the primary frontage free to run an uninterrupted rhythm of architectural benches and ledges, claimed since opening by cyclists, runners, and pet owners. She staged arrival in increments: the ledge, the corner, and the door, and then the whole interior all at once. Kitchen, storage, and service sit at the deepest portion of the plan, and the bar extends forward from that core as the organizing element of the space.
Where the bar meets the rear wall, Burgos lined the perimeter in fluted MDF panels, articulated by corner moldings that give proportion to an otherwise solid face. The verticals climb and then curve over into the lowered ceiling, like laminated dough at the scale of a room, the sheet turned back on itself, the very technique that made Born in Bread.
She shifted the ceiling treatment according to what happens underneath it: custom Gmelina wood grid lighting panels mark the customer side, while painted boards and recessed pin lights do the work of a service zone behind the bar. Below, the counter is finished in concave marble strips that lift it visually off the terrazzo, the heavy tile set against a stainless-steel top outlined by a backlit acrylic diffuser. The seam glows at night, drawing its perimeter in light.
The verticals climb and then curve over into the lowered ceiling, like laminated dough at the scale of a room, the sheet turned back on itself, the very technique that made Born in Bread.
Shelving-door Outdoor tables
To the left of the door, past the pastry and cake displays, Burgos set the main dining area for the larger groups, with a playful merchandise wall at the rear as backdrop. To the right, she turned built-in benches toward the coffee bar, gathering solo diners and pairs. Both zones sit on a floor composition of custom-cut tiles and muted orange terrazzo, a surface that clambers up the counter and cabinetry, blurring the line between architecture and furnishing.
Deeper in, Burgos concealed flexible private rooms behind two sliding bookshelves, opened when seating runs short, or discussions require the privacy of all four walls. The shelves carry travel memorabilia, personal collections, and gifts from Gimenez’s family and friends.
“We love how we can experience the space in different ways,” Gimenez says. “The sliding bookshelves and private rooms allow us to host meetings, celebrations, workshops, and community events without disrupting the experience of regular diners.”
Since March, use has settled into patterns thanks to Burgos’ design: staff cross the open plan without breaking stride. Larger parties automatically drift left; those who arrive with laptops settle right, near the benches. The private rooms take the meetings and the workshops while regular service carries on unhindered. A couple of months in, Born in Bread Jaro now holds a crowd the way Mandurriao grew to, offering somewhere to sit for longer than the coffee lasts, in a room folded into shape by Burgos’ hand. •
Project Team
Project design team: Ar. Gellaine Marie A. Burgos
Plans and diagrams: Janne Ellie Sequio and Kurt Benedict Carolino
Project photographer: Rustom Roxas and Trixie Louise Salcedo of Novelle Studios
General contractor: SPS Builders
Project lead: Ar. Paul Tonducan & Ar. Kimberly Capatid
Consultants:
Electrical design: LS Calimpong
Plumbing design: Ar. John Parreno
Mechanical design: Engr. Allan J. Vargas
Electronics design: Engr. Jessie James Guintibano
Notable suppliers and fabricators:
Wall cladding: Vertiflute, Arkcladd
Furniture: Quirk Furniture, Mandaue Foam
Signages: WA Construction & Advertising Services
Acoustic panels: JDE Architectural Acoustics and Engineering
