Thong
Thong - Founder / Barista at Narrative Coffee Stand
I met up with Thong one Saturday afternoon for a coffee talk. I wanted to hear about the story of this man whom I met for the first time during his routine at the Singapore Barista Competition 2022. The man who owns a coffee stand that serves some of the most delicious coffee from one of my favourite roasters. The man whom I’ve rubbed shoulders with at a couple of coffee events. Today’s story is all about Thong.
Thong started his career working in a café opened by his friends from army. He didn’t have much experience when he began. He built his foundation for pulling espresso shots and pouring latte from the many YouTube videos. Thong’s passion for wanting to improve, I have to admit, was infectious. He would buy milk from the supermarket just so he could hone his latte art after work.
When he eventually left for Melbourne to further his studies, he part-timed at cafes for additional income. Halfway through his course, Thong realized he was prioritizing his schedule around café shifts rather than his studies. When he finally graduated, Thong came home and went to work with Nylon for close to a year before opening Narrative.
One of the biggest takeaways for Thong while working in Melbourne was learning about workflow and teamwork. The takeaway kiosks or cafés in Melbourne were some of the best training grounds that will quickly turn almost anyone with no prior barista experience into a highly efficient barista. With the high volume of takeaway orders, Thong learned time-effective skills like placing teaspoons on saucers while steaming a pitcher of milk meant for two milk-based beverages.
Thong also shared that behind the coffee bar, you’d sometimes work with different baristas who each have different roles. You will have someone pulling espresso shots, someone steaming milk, a dedicated latte artist, a runner- and maybe someone who needs to swap out the milk keg during mid-shift.
“It was during an afternoon slam when we were running out of milk and I needed to swap out the milk keg and while connecting the line to the keg, I think I misconnected the line and the milk keg kind of just exploded and milk was just everywhere. In the middle of a lunch crowd. It was damn embarrassing then but thinking back, that was funny.”
Thong also notes the value of building a community and getting people to reach out and connect with one another. Most people probably share the same set of problems, and everyone could bring with them a different perspective and it is always good to talk about things and exchange ideas because that will bring about a different dimension towards the approach to a possibly common problem.
If you’ve been to Narrative, you would notice it has no frills about it. Thong thinks of it as a kiosk where people come by, grab their coffee, and go on with their routine. Narrative houses a comfortable 5 to 6 guests inside its space, and the seating spills outside with a few more benches. Look at its coffee offering, and you’d see names like Nylon Coffee Roasters, Coffee Collective and Market Lane Coffee. If you know these brands, you’d recognize these are roasters synonymous with quality and consistency and are also committed to building healthy long-term partnerships with producers.
Thong values and respects the work of these industry legends, choosing to learn and work with them. Thong shares that working with these roasters gave him an easier time as a business owner because the roasted coffees were easy to work with – greens were high quality while the roasts were met with stringent quality control, therefore reducing the variable involved in brewing as a barista.
For Thong, all of these serve as his formative years in paving his aspirations to move up the value chain. He seeks to be a coffee professional who is able to build a personal relationship with producers and hopes one day to visit the people who grow the coffee whom he purchases through the roasters he works with. One of his career goals is to buy directly as an independent roaster like Nylon. Thong is also working towards a goal of roasting his own coffee, hoping one day when Narrative serves their own roasted beans instead of featuring guest roasters, he would have already established a trusted relationship with his regulars who recognize his commitment to quality.
Ask Thong if he could offer a piece of advice for aspiring café owners, “I wished there was a coffee company to learn from someone before opening my own business because the biggest risk is your own money. When we think about money, a lot of our decisions are influenced by our fear of losing money.”
“Staying to your own philosophy is also very important. While the industry was big on processed coffee, these were products that were easy to sell, but Nylon stuck through with their principles of not doing it but stayed true to their values of serving only clean coffee.”
From the man himself, by now, if you haven’t figured, the things that matter deeply to Thong as both a person and a coffee professional are values, consistency, and relationships. It has been a truly inspiring session learning from Thong, and I hope Thong’s story will fuel that passion in you as a coffee professional.
Author’s note: Written for A Coffee Talk by Ker You Quan
Source: https://www.instagram.com/p/CqAFoOBvrxA/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
