Tuesday 15 July 2014

Newly opened "LAO GUAY BU KOPI TIAM" in my little neighbourhood...

Recent years, there are a lot of new developments around my little neighborhood. I am blessed to stay at a place surrounded by lots of good food & famous eateries in Singapore (no... not Geylang, but not too far from Geylang too). It will takes me few months to cover all these nice eateries in my little neighbourhood if I were to post a blog a day on one place each day... what makes it even more interesting is the number of new interesting eateries, cafe, restaurants all sprouting out one after another during these years... just to make my little neighbourhood even more colourful and happening!

By now, you must be very curious where is my little neighbourhood?

I stay around Rangoon Road, and the infamous Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh (who last time refused to serve the Hong Kong Governor that wanted to dine during non-operating hours) is just walking distance from my place. At one end of Rangoon Road, we have Ng Ah Sio Bak Kut Teh (bought over by Jambo recent years)...  and right on the other end of Rangoon is what I blogging today.

Along Rangoon Road and around my little neighbourhood, we have many interesting eateries and cafe too which I will try to blog my discoveries in days ahead on my little neighbourhood and things I feel worth to look out for. You might not even aware, around my little neighbourhood, we a have many award winning housing estates gardens too (National Parks' Community in Bloom 2014 Awards; Gold, Silver, Platinum, Diamand awards winners all come from my little neighbourhood!)


Last Sunday, I happened to chance upon a newly opened cafe at 88 Rangoon Road.
Known as "OLD HEN COFFEE BAR" and was just the 2nd day of its opening the day i visited. Was passing by the cafe before I head down to my little lolly shop....


Being a very kapo man... erm... i mean being a very responsible grassroots leader of my little neighbourhood, I decided to go into this newly opened cafe to take a look and check it out...
The whole place is brightly led by natural sunlight beaming thru the glass panel frontage. (Which also explains why I couldn't get a nice photo from the front view of the cafe with the reflections of the  glass panels). The walls are pretty much unfurnished with high ceilings, and the wooden surfaces of the bar counter and table tops gives the whole place a warm feel in contrast with the otherwise cold and minimalistic ambience. Without much distractions from the no frills deco, the moment you stepped in, very fast the focus falls on... the people...
You can see the barista takes his job very seriously with his coffee...
Weighing every single brew. The precision shown not just on the weighting, but also on the little details these guys put in when operating their coffee machines and also the effort put into the choosing of their beans. 
They have quite a good selection of beans here available to buy back to brew yourself.
And this is what they chosen for me after knowing I want a kopi-O and one kopi....
I was given the Brazilian arabic beans. Although not completely to my liking for the Long Black due to the overwhelming acidity of the Brazilian beans....
 but it goes pretty well for the latte, having the milk does reduce some of its acidity.
The barista did put in some effort to do up the coffee art too.
Not the best coffee art i have seen but I can sense the sincerity in getting this done....

 The nutty fragrance of the beans did gives the whole coffee a nice finishing and the aroma just  makes me longing for a cake to go along with the coffee...
Have chosen an Earl Grey cake. Honestly, not much choices since the boss mentioned most of the food was almost completely wiped off since yesterday's opening. 
(Photos taken from their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/oldhencoffee)

The cake wasn't that bad but not the best I have tried. The bosses didn't bake these cakes, was sourced from some bakery which maybe explains the mediocrity to the standard of the cake. Just to make you envy me a little bit more... These cakes and coffee are given free of charged! Served on the house since it is the 2nd day of opening. But of course, being in F&B myself, I have done my part in tipping their services.

Given the fact that this is just the second day of the opening, somehow I can feel that the standard of the food and drinks will improves very fast. Why i think so? All because of... the people...
Old Hen Coffee Bar was started by these three brothers. If you think they look alike... that is because...they are real brothers and.... Two of them are twins. Together with their youngest brother, they started Old Hen Coffee Bar. The youngest boy currently still serving NS while helping out over the weekends. The twins in their mid-twentis, studied Tourism in Brisbane and back to Singapore after a few jobs before starting Old Hen Coffee Bar (Yes, studied in Queensland... the place where i spend the most beautiful months of my life learning the art of making candy too)! 
At such a young age, I am not sure if they will be able preserves on, stay in this trade and running their cafe for long, but for sure, youngsters at their age when determined to do something, they will achieve great results in short time span... Which is why I quite safely feel that overall standard of their cafe will improves very fast.

From the chat with these three brothers, you can hear how much aspirations and dreams these young ones have in running their cafe. You can see the passion in their eyes when they tell you how they planned to bring good food and good coffee to their customisers in day ahead!

Being grinding my own beans, brewing my own coffee ever since I got myself a coffee machine. Wondering when will the next time I be visiting them just because of the coffee... but nevertheless, with them opened in my neighbourhood, i am sure there are times where i need to find a place to sit and get a quick fix for my kopi-o with some guay guay & cakes, this will sure be one of the place I visit again. And of course,  hope to see how far this "Old Hen" will grows in days ahead, from the first day I saw it hatched. To see young ones with dreams and aspiration while witnessing their passion in growing their cafe is more precious and important than that cup of kopi and the cakes they serving.


Address: 88 Rangoon Road, #01-03


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