🚧 before beach road happened

if you read our birthday article last week, you might remember us saying we'll save the beach road renovation stories for another day.

well, today's that day.

opening day has a funny way of erasing everything that came before it. once our doors open and the cafe fills with people, it's easy to forget that not too long ago, it was just an empty shell filled with dust, construction materials and a lot of imagination about what the space could become.

the one that almost got away

one afternoon, we happened to walk past this very corner unit after the construction hoarding had come down and immediately noticed the exposed red brick facade. it stood out from everything around it, so we reached out to our agent to see if they could track down the owner.

the thing was, the unit wasn't even on the market. we were told it had already been earmarked for another tenant, so we figured that was probably the end of the story for. this unit.

except it wasn't because some time later, the opportunity came back around. conversations restarted, plans slowly began taking shape and before we knew it, we were standing in the middle of the empty shop. it was exciting, but also a little intimidating. after spending two years in joo chiat, the space suddenly felt enormous and every decision somehow felt that much bigger too.

at that point, we weren't thinking about furniture or colours yet. we were asking ourselves a much bigger question. if we were lucky enough to build a second cafe, what would a second big short coffee actually feel like?

building something that felt like us

joo chiat has taught us a lot. we planned the space ourselves, oversaw the renovation and learnt plenty of lessons along the way. by the time beach road came around, we had a much better understanding of what worked, what didn't and what kind of space we wanted to build next.

we wanted the space to feel playful, a little rebellious and just different enough that it didn't blend into every other cafe. so for the first time, we worked with a designer to help bring that vision to life.

one of the biggest design decisions was cladding the front glass windows. we loved the idea because it would give the cafe a much stronger identity from the outside and create a facade people would instantly recognise. the only thing we couldn't quite picture was whether it would make the space feel too dark. we've always loved spaces that feel bright, airy and inviting, so the thought of building the opposite of that was something we were quite worried about.

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but it turned out to be one of those decisions where you simply have to trust the process. once the lighting, furniture and everything else came together, all of those worries disappeared. instead of making the cafe feel dark and enclosed, the cladded windows gave the space a stronger identity while still keeping it warm and inviting. they became one of our favourite features and complemented the rest of the interior in a way we couldn't have imagined.

27 light balls

you have probably already seen the light-ball installation that stretches across the cafe ceiling and it's another one of our favourite features of the cafe. together with the rounded forms throughout the space, it gives the space a warmth and cosiness that we really love.

getting them to the cafe however, almost became a story of its own.

during the renovation, we were placing bulk orders almost every day, so we slipped into autopilot and keyed in our residential address for delivery instead. under normal circumstances, that wouldn't have been much of a problem.

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except we have 27 of them and the biggest one measures 1.2 metres. about an hour before delivery, our driver gave us a call to ask if we were certain about the location because he couldn't quite figure out why anyone would want so many oversized light balls delivered to a residential address.

when the delivery finally arrived at beach road, we could only laugh as crate after crate came off the back of the truck. even the delivery driver was laughing by then as he unloaded what felt like an endless number of light balls.

seeing all the crates lined up in the loading area made us realise just how absurd it would've been if they were delivered to our place. thankfully, that crisis was averted. while the light balls eventually found their way to the right place, there was another design decision that still reminds us of itself every single day.

the blue floor

finding the right blue took much longer than we'd expected because we wanted a shade that matched our paper cup. so after what felt like an endless search, we finally found one that felt exactly right and knew we had to bring them in.

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by the time the tiles were down and the coffee machines were in, the renovation was finally starting to feel real. opening day suddenly didn't feel so far away anymore. it wasn't until we started serving coffee on soft launch day that we realised the perfect shade of blue also happens to show every footprint, every coffee drip and every tiny speck of dust.

the area around the espresso machine only needs a handful of coffees before it starts asking for another wipe down. we'll clean it, pull a few more shots, turn around and somehow it needs our attention again. it's a beautiful floor, but it has a very effective way of keeping us humble.

if there is ever a next time, we’ll probably think a little harder before choosing another tile.

the final stretch

what nobody tells you about opening a cafe is how much cleaning happens before anyone can even walk through the door. beach road is almost triple the size of joo chiat, with an entire second level of office space to set up as well. which also meant more windows to wipe, more floors to scrub, more equipment to assemble and what felt like an unlimited amount of dust.

those final few weeks before opening became a blur of unpacking boxes, moving furniture, cleaning everything we'd just cleaned and slowly watching the space become less of a construction site and more like a cafe. there was one change we were especially looking forward to though.

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after spending the last two years taking breaks and working out of a storeroom behind the bar, we finally had a proper office. having somewhere we could spread things out, eat lunch, sit down for meetings and work without balancing laptops on cardboard boxes felt oddly luxurious. it probably wasn't the biggest difference our customers noticed, but it was definitely one of the biggest differences for us.

not long after we opened, someone walked into beach road, looked around for a while and said this feels very big short. we don't think they realised how much those five words meant to us.

because underneath all the renovation decisions, endless cleaning, sleepless nights and every moment we spent second-guessing ourselves, that was always the goal. we never set out to build the biggest cafe or the fanciest one. we simply wanted to create a space for our community to gather. so hearing someone say exactly that made every decision feel worth it.

come visit us

if you haven't stopped by beach road yet, we'd love to welcome you.

273 beach road #01-01, singapore 199548

mon - thurs, sun: 8am - 5pm

fri - sat: 8am - 7pm

last order follows our closing hours and the nearest mrt is bugis station, take exit f and walk out via duo. as always, no reservations needed. just walk in whenever you're ready.

see you soon 💙