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'due south Chen Diya found Sanity in coffee but her cafe has taken a striking from COVID-19
Running Sanity Coffee Bar at the Esplanade has been this musician's mode of supporting those who work in the arts. Merely if business doesn't pick upwards this month, the cafe'due south fate is uncertain.
(Photo: Kelvin Chia)
10 December 2022 06:30AM (Updated: 09 Jul 2022 11:09PM)
During the "excursion breaker", Sanity Coffee Bar fabricated and delivered virtually 2000 cups of coffee to healthcare workers, bringing comfort and lifting spirits in a time of incertitude.
Just thank you to the COVID-19 pandemic, the cafe'due south own fate now hangs in the balance.
Located in a quiet corner on the second floor of the Esplanade Mall, Sanity sees just about fifty to 60 per cent of the customers information technology used to. With performances and events curtailed, foot traffic in the area has reduced drastically.
This means that owner Chen Diya doesn't know what will happen when this month is up.
Only the cafe is much more than only a business to 35-twelvemonth-former Diya, a singer and one half of Mandopop girl band The Freshman.
The Project Superstar 2007 winner opened its doors about a year and a half ago without knowing annihilation nearly the F&B manufacture, but only believing in the restorative power of coffee.
In 2016, when she embarked on a two-and-a-half-twelvemonth earth tour opening for Jacky Cheung, she'd look for a cafe to escape to in each country she was in, she recounted. That me-time activity became essential for her wellbeing.
"Java is an excuse 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 find coffee kept me sane".
And then, when the opportunity came to outset her ain cafe, a small voice inside her told her to seize information technology, she recalled. And the cafe's proper name came easily: Sanity, the substance she found in every loving cup of java.
She'd had experience with coffee before, when she worked as a barista at Oriole in 2011. "That was later on The Freshman's first album was released, and I was very lost," she said. "Nosotros thought another door would open, but it didn't. And I was bankrupt. And I was wondering what to do adjacent. Do I get and detect a 'proper job', according to my female parent? Or practise 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, and then that I can 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 surround she observed at establishments like Nylon Coffee Roasters.
And because drinking java at a cafe was her "sanity", "when I started this identify, I (decided to) really try and defend this bit of java very fiercely," she said.
That ways it's perfectly fine with her if guests want to society one drink and spend eight hours sitting at the counter.
"I actually want that kind of space, because that'southward the kind of infinite that I wish I had. Like, if I'yard at Starbucks, and I run into people chasing students away, I always feel very bad. I experience similar I want to purchase them another drinkable so that they can pay for their 'rent'. Because to me, coffee, and the fourth dimension y'all spend with a coffee cup, is quite sacred."
For instance, "JJ Lin came for java, and it actually really blessed me to see him sitting at a counter quietly; to have that space. He's an international superstar. (Here) he'due south just JJ – he'due south simply a guy who likes coffee, and wants to scroll stuff on his telephone like anyone else."
Running the cafe isn't without enormous challenges. In addition to spending her days serving customers, Diya likewise does the marketing, carte du jour development, copywriting and even the heavy lifting – transporting bucketfuls of beans and the like – all by herself.
"It'due south been hard but besides very enriching. I think we've really built a community of people here. Coffee is always the chat," she said.
The cafe's signature beverage, Night Matter, was born out of 1 of these conversations. At dinner at Restaurant Labyrinth, located right reverse the cafe, Diya encountered a dessert comprising dark chocolate and dark 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 blend perfectly in a milky coffee. The event is a fragrantly delicious java with deep caramel notes, served in a loving cup rimmed with brown sugar crystals.
Existence located at the Esplanade, on the doorstep of its theatres and concert halls, is too an important function of the buffet'southward identity.
"There are a lot of very passionate, very amazing individuals who practise a lot for the arts scene. And sometimes it feels like if I tin't exercise 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 best way to exercise that."
That's why she'd exist deplorable if Sanity had to shut its doors here. "I'grand very enlightened of how dispensable we are; how many java places there are out there. But I become very blessed past this space. I think I get blest by conversations that happen over the counter. And I get very blessed when I see people who are passionate come in here and share their stories… Information technology makes me feel very alive." And, she added, "It but feels similar home".
Making coffee and making music aren't that much different, she mused. "Music is function of life. It's a medium. Coffee is likewise a medium. Because of music, we go to reach out to people, have conversations and share something we might non be able to share otherwise. And we get to brand someone's day, or keep someone going for the moment, whatever moment they're going through. I think coffee is similar."
She added, "I call back sometimes, whatever we're doing, nosotros only want to be able to brand a small deviation. It'south not a noble matter. You also become very blessed in render".
Bringing coffee to healthcare workers during the circuit breaker, for example, was an practice that made her "realise how many overnice people there are out there". People who learned about the cafe'south initiative started to offer donations to comprehend the price of the coffee.
"They would say, 'Can I contribute?' Then they would stuff S$300 in cash in our faces. And we'd be similar, 'That's too much. Practice you know how many cups of coffee this is?'
"In full, I think we received about South$iv,000. And then, what started out as something I wanted to do as a cafe ended up being fully covered by the kindness of our regulars."
So, "Even if, at the stop of the day, we don't survive, the last couple of months wouldn't have been for naught. We would have good memories," she said. "That'south the sort of spirit I'm trying to bear on with right now.
"The thing about concern is that you never know. Sometimes, you're just belongings out for something to happen. And I recall it feels a bit like that now – like property out for something to happen."
Sanity Coffee Bar is at viii Raffles Artery, #02-19 Esplanade Mall.
Source: https://cnalifestyle.channelnewsasia.com/entertainment/chen-diya-sanity-coffee-bar-the-freshman-project-superstar-250186
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