The Freshman’s Chen Diya found Sanity in coffee but her cafe has taken a hit from COVID-19
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The Freshman's Chen Diya found Sanity in coffee but her cafe has taken a hit from COVID-19
Running Sanity Coffee Bar at the Esplanade has been this musician's mode of supporting those who work in the arts. But if business doesn't selection upwardly this month, the cafe's fate is uncertain.
(Photo: Kelvin Chia)
10 Dec 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 09 Jul 2022 11:09PM)
During the "circuit billow", Sanity Coffee Bar made and delivered nearly 2000 cups of java to healthcare workers, bringing comfort and lifting spirits in a fourth dimension of uncertainty.
But thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the cafe's own fate now hangs in the balance.
Located in a placidity corner on the second floor of the Esplanade Mall, Sanity sees simply almost 50 to sixty per cent of the customers information technology used to. With performances and events curtailed, pes traffic in the area has reduced drastically.
This means that possessor Chen Diya doesn't know what will happen when this month is up.
But the cafe is much more than than merely a business organisation to 35-year-old Diya, a singer and one half of Mandopop daughter ring The Freshman.
The Project Superstar 2007 winner opened its doors most a year and a half ago without knowing anything about the F&B industry, only just believing in the restorative power of java.
In 2016, when she embarked on a two-and-a-half-year world tour opening for Jacky Cheung, she'd expect for a cafe to escape to in each land she was in, she recounted. That me-time activity became essential for her wellbeing.
"Coffee is an alibi for myself to spend some time to recalibrate my values and how I feel; and to dump all the thoughts I have into a notebook," she said. During that time, "coffee kept me sane. Or rather, the act of going out to discover java kept me sane".
So, when the opportunity came to start her own cafe, a small vocalisation inside her told her to seize it, she recalled. And the cafe's proper name came easily: Sanity, the substance she found in every cup of coffee.
She'd had feel with coffee before, when she worked as a barista at Oriole in 2011. "That was after The Freshman'south starting time anthology was released, and I was very lost," she said. "We idea some other door would open, but information technology didn't. And I was broke. And I was wondering what to do next. Do I get and find a 'proper chore', according to my female parent? Or practice I continue to try? Even and so, how do I continue singing?"
As a child, she had many ambitions: "Waitress, NTUC cashier and immigration officer, so that I tin chop your passport", she quipped.
Finding herself in hospitality, she was inspired by the idea that a cafe could become a community hangout – the kind of environment she observed at establishments like Nylon Java Roasters.
And considering drinking coffee at a buffet was her "sanity", "when I started this identify, I (decided to) actually try and defend this bit of coffee very fiercely," she said.
That means information technology's perfectly fine with her if guests want to gild ane drink and spend eight hours sitting at the counter.
"I really want that kind of space, because that's the kind of space that I wish I had. Like, if I'thousand at Starbucks, and I run across people chasing students abroad, I e'er feel very bad. I feel like I want to purchase them another drink so that they tin can pay for their 'hire'. Because to me, coffee, and the time you spend with a coffee cup, is quite sacred."
For example, "JJ Lin came for coffee, and it actually really blessed me to see him sitting at a counter quietly; to have that space. He's an international superstar. (Hither) he'due south simply JJ – he's just a guy who likes coffee, and wants to scroll stuff on his telephone similar anyone else."
Running the cafe isn't without enormous challenges. In addition to spending her days serving customers, Diya likewise does the marketing, bill of fare development, copywriting and even the heavy lifting – transporting bucketfuls of beans and the like – all by herself.
"Information technology's been difficult but also very enriching. I recollect we've really built a community of people here. Java is e'er the chat," she said.
The cafe'due south signature drinkable, Dark Matter, was born out of one of these conversations. At dinner at Restaurant Labyrinth, located right opposite the cafe, Diya encountered a dessert comprising dark chocolate and night soy sauce.
Chef LG Han gave her a taste of the soy sauce, made by premium local brewer Kwong Woh Hin, and she immediately knew it would alloy perfectly in a milky java. The consequence is a fragrantly delicious java with deep caramel notes, served in a loving cup rimmed with chocolate-brown sugar crystals.
Being located at the Esplanade, on the doorstep of its theatres and concert halls, is also an important function of the cafe'southward identity.
"In that location are a lot of very passionate, very amazing individuals who do a lot for the arts scene. And sometimes information technology feels like if I can't practice something for the arts scene, at least I can do something for the people who do something for the arts scene. And coffee is the all-time fashion to do that."
That'due south why she'd be sad if Sanity had to close its doors here. "I'm very enlightened of how disposable nosotros are; how many java places there are out in that location. Just I go very blessed by this space. I call back I get blessed by conversations that happen over the counter. And I get very blessed when I see people who are passionate come up in here and share their stories… It makes me feel very live." And, she added, "It simply feels similar home".
Making java and making music aren't that much different, she mused. "Music is part of life. It's a medium. Coffee is also a medium. Considering of music, we get to reach out to people, accept conversations and share something nosotros might not be able to share otherwise. And we go to brand someone's day, or go along someone going for the moment, whatsoever moment they're going through. I think java is similar."
She added, "I think sometimes, whatever we're doing, nosotros just want to be able to brand a small-scale difference. Information technology's not a noble thing. You as well go very blessed in return".
Bringing coffee to healthcare workers during the circuit breaker, for instance, was an exercise that made her "realise how many nice people there are out at that place". People who learned about the cafe's initiative started to offer donations to embrace the cost of the coffee.
"They would say, 'Can I contribute?' Then they would stuff S$300 in greenbacks in our faces. And we'd be similar, 'That'due south too much. Exercise yous know how many cups of coffee this is?'
"In full, I recollect we received near S$4,000. So, what started out as something I wanted to practise as a cafe ended up being fully covered by the kindness of our regulars."
Then, "Even if, at the end of the solar day, nosotros don't survive, the concluding couple of months wouldn't take been for nothing. We would have good memories," she said. "That's the sort of spirit I'm trying to comport on with right now.
"The affair about business organization is that y'all never know. Sometimes, you're just holding out for something to happen. And I think it feels a bit similar that now – like property out for something to happen."
Sanity Coffee Bar is at 8 Raffles Avenue, #02-19 Esplanade Mall.
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Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/chen-diya-sanity-coffee-bar-the-freshman-project-superstar-250186
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