Shell Mobility EDSA Balintawak reopens with a drive-thru Shell Café
By Dylan Afuang
BEFORE TRAVELERS from Metro Manila embark on a road trip to North Luzon, they can receive sustenance and service for their vehicles at the recently renovated and reopened Shell Mobility EDSA Balintawak in Quezon City.
Located along the northbound side of EDSA, a few blocks before the Balintawak entrance of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX), the stopover caters to motorists in the area — and most especially northbound travelers due to its proximity from the NLEX — with the services offered by Shell Pilipinas Corp.
Aside from offering Shell fuels, the station, operating in the area for decades, now carries a renovated Shell Select convenience store and two Shell Helix Oilchange+ service bays.
Chief among the amenities, integrated around and above the Select store, is a branch of the fuel manufacturer’s brand of coffee shops called Shell Café.
Combining a gas station, vehicle service bays, and café in one place is part of the fuel company’s current rebranding to name all stopovers as Shell Mobility sites.
At the Shell Mobility EDSA Balintawak, the two-storey Shell Café is the first in Metro Manila. It follows the shop’s opening in Tagaytay, Cavite, and is also among the first of its kind in the country to feature a drive-through option, allowing drivers to receive their caffeine fix without alighting from their vehicles.
“We fuel for the road and the soul,” stated Engr. Jan Vincent Fernandez, the operations manager of CFAL Oasis, the company that handles several franchise Shell stations, in his message at the opening of the station. “At its core, a gas station is a place where you fuel your vehicle, but it’s also where you fuel yourself. (Shell Café offers) a wide range of food and beverages, from freshly brewed coffee to tasty snacks. These offerings can provide sustenance needed for long drives and serve as a culinary pit stop for exploring local flavors.”
Drink options at Shell Café include fruit teas, coffee, and chocolate drinks. Complementing these is a range of delicious treats such breads, cronuts, pizza, and donuts.
Inside the shop, guests can enjoy the delicacies while relaxing on recliners, on the tables and chairs, while viewing their vehicles being serviced in the garage.
Food and drink options also extend to the Chatime and Binalot tea and restaurant chains whose kiosks share the space with the Café and the Select store.
“Shell Mobility aims to serve everyone who moves,” Shell Pilipinas Head of Mobility Marketing Arvin Obmerga announced during his message. These are people on two- or four-wheels and so forth, he explained.
Explaining the rationale behind transforming simple Shell gas stations to Shell Mobility sites replete with amenities, he added, “We evolve stations to give reasons for people to stop and to stay, and to stay long with Shell.”
With the reopening of the EDSA Balintawak site, Mr. Obmerga revealed that the fuel company has rebranded more than 100 hundred stations to Mobility sites around the country.
The outlet could offer car wash services by the end of the year, and could see more car wash bays adding to the one already built should demand call for it, the executive added.
