When you've been to one, you've been to all. We're talking, of course, about the countless 'unique' cafés with ten different kinds of eggs Benedict, and similar-but-different brews of coffee. It's not easy to start your own café in Singapore but if you do, don't forget the mason jars and the following café-centric elements.
A sneering barista
The douchebro who, after you place an order for a black coffee, twitches his nose, adjusts his newsboy cap and snarls, ‘You mean an Americano?’ Yeah, sorry we don’t speak barista-ese, dude.
Science lab equipment
No self-professed hipster café would be without its racks of beakers, pipettes, funnels, flasks (wood-topped, of course) and other arcane paraphernalia. Sometimes we wonder if the mustachioed baristas just enjoy watching black liquid filter through all this equipment rather than, y’know, using them to make the coffee actually taste better.
Scratchy, repurposed wooden tabletops
Or any other upcycled surface, really. Like palettes or old doors ripped from the bowels of the owner’s mum’s apartment. The more distressed, the better. Hell, even built-as-vintage memorabilia works to cement the café’s hipster cred.
Edison bulbs
To nail the #aesthetic, the café’s gotta be: 1) minimal; 2) industrial; or 3) chic. Pick one or, to really gun for it, all the above. And non-LED Edison bulbs hanging off copper pipes aren’t just terrible for the environment – they hit those three points while caressing the café in the softest light possible to take your flatlay of latte art, cake and fashion magazine.
A terrarium or two
A touch of greenery helps offset the ‘minimal industrial chic’ vibe. And bonus points if there’s a kitty lounging around outside, which, to be frank, makes everything else forgivable.