Not Another Coffee Hole

You don’t need to read a magazine or guidebook to know that Vietnam has a ripe coffee culture. However, if you did you’d probably be reading about its French colonial influence and how it is now the number 2 coffee producing country in the world, second only to Brazil. In the early morning, old men in checkered boxers and white tanks sit cross-legged reading the daily paper at their favourite hole-in-the-wall. As the day goes on, the holes fill up with their usuals who’ve come to get their coffee fix like bees to a flower, or gift card wielding teenagers to a mall.


So what aspects do people look for when they choose their regular drinking spot? For most its the convenience of location while others go where they know they’ll see a familiar face. With short, plastic, primary colour chairs and foldout metal tables, not too many places are concerned with style and décor.

But it was those two qualities that both attracted and intimidated me when I first passed Ride Café in an alley off of Nguyen Thi Minh Khai. With its dimly lit, war bunker interior, tattooed clientele, camo-inspired motorcycles parked in the front and not a foreign face in sight it took me a month before I could work up the courage to go inside. But once I did, I became a habitual customer immediately.

The interior makes it look as if it were built to withstand bombing raids - an aesthetic that compliments the biker clientele’s love for driving bikes painted camo-green and equipped with exhausts made from old grenade launchers. The walls are decorated from end-to-end with biker paraphernalia, license plates from Kansas to Cambodia and an ox skull with an x-shaped bandage on its head hanging over the bar. Music played can range from classic Vietnamese love songs to CCR. The clientele here consists of bikers, photographers, and all kinds of designers who bring their work there with them on their laptops. With long hair, goatees, tattoos and AC/DC t-shirts you really feel like you’ve tapped into Saigon’s very own hipster scene.





The effable Thu and his wife Thao opened Ride Café two years ago to serve coffee to those that share their love for motorcycles. Thu, nicknamed Cricket, is a founding member of the Saigon CD Club, a motorcycle club with a heart. Thao’s brother, Khoa, is also a member and part owner of TTK Customs, a custom motorcycle shop here in Saigon.

[Cricket]

SCDC, founded in 2004, is a group of Honda CD enthusiasts who do tours through parts of Vietnam as well as to places in Laos, Cambodia and Thailand. But its not just joy rides that they’re after - they also raise money for various charities in the process. Part of a network of other CD Clubs throughout the country, their slogan is “Ride To Tell.”

Cricket’s brother, Hung, is not a member of the Club. When I asked him why he merely rolled up his sleeve and referred me to one of his tattoos, a street sign with the SCDC logo that read, “I Don’t Have CD bike, But I Love CD Club ”. Honda CD bikes used to be cheap, but prices have soared, along with their popularity. A used 125cc CD bike goes from 28M VND upwards. Not cheap for the average Vietnamese income, especially if you plan to customize it, as most SCDC members do. CD bikes, called “Touring” bikes or “Benly’s”, were originally intended as work bikes for commuters and deliveries. Built to be cheap and indestructible, it’s no surprise that they’ve found a fan base here in Vietnam.

[Say it with a tattoo]

Coffee isn’t the only service Ride provides. It’s also where Son, a ‘Mac Genius’ who doesn’t play by the company’s rules, runs his business. If you need Apple parts, products, software or just help with your Mac, he knows more and charges less than the local [non] Apple Stores.

Ca Phe Da: 8,000VND Ca Phe Sua Da: 9,000VND. 384/2 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, Q. 3.
What’s your favourite hole-in-the-wall café? Send me the address and if I like it I'll write about it in a future blog.