Café Culture in Ho Chi Minh City: Part 1

- April 06, 2019

A legacy from French Indochina, the Vietnamese have embraced café culture big-time. An inherent component of Vietnam’s social fabric, cafés have been fuelled by a love affair with home-grown coffee (ca phe) dating back to the French colonial-era and a huge domestic coffee bean cultivation - this nation is one of the world’s top coffee exporters. Cafés however are not just for coffee connoisseurs.

If they’re not eating, another serious pastime here, the Vietnamese (curiously, mostly males) love hanging out at cafés, their urban sanctuaries, for decades, meeting friends, gossiping, quietly passing the time of day, reading the newspapers, playing cards and chess and so forth – albeit nowadays, patrons are most likely looking down at their Smartphones. Locals drink coffee by the bucket loads and it's so strong, it knocks yer socks off. Here in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), the local cafe favourite (and mine) is ca phe sua da – strong, hot black coffee poured over a glass crammed with ice and a glug of condensed milk at the bottom. Then stir well (preferably not with the single-use plastic straws the Vietnamese are obsessed with). This is invariably accompanied by a complimentary glass of fragrant iced green tea.

Like elsewhere in Vietnam, cafés are an omnipresent fixture along every street and down many side-alleys, mainly traditional and no-frills, albeit with some interesting hybrids; Hanoi’s artsy hideaways housed in old tube houses or restored colonial villas or those hole-in-the-wall gems....

and tropical Saigon’s penchant for green garden oases hidden amongst the urban sprawl.
Invariably, old-school cafés are usually open-sided, spilling out onto the pavement, designed not only to watch the world go past (another French legacy) but to be in the thick of it.

In the last decade or so, fanned by new-found wealth, disposable income, globalisation, higher influx of foreigners, blah blah blah, a new generation of decidedly hip and cosmopolitan cafés have emerged in Saigon, especially in downtown. Where legions of laptop junkies congregate in stylish surrounds, that wouldn’t look amiss in London or Sydney, maximizing the complementary Wi-Fi and sipping on frosted frappes,ca phe sua da, iced coconut coffees and other blended concoctions.

Taken off the streets, enclosed and blasted with artic air-con, cafés are a good place to chill, literally. Like the beans, cafés are predominately home-grown, with some familiar domestic chains, like Highlands Coffee and Phuc Long, able to thrive in a market devoid of scant international competition. Before I departed Vietnam in 2010, the only global coffee chains muscling-in on the act were Coffee Bean and The Tea Leaf, post-2006.

For visitors and Jaded Empresses like moi, let's be frank, there isn’t a lot to see or do in Ho Chi Minh City / Saigon, once you’ve covered all the main sights. Thus, for me (and many), cafes were and still are a delightful way to fritter away the hours and take refuge from the city mayhem and blistering heat. Why not blend into the local ca phe culture and drink the obligatory ca phe sua da? During my time away from Vietnam, this was one of the things I missed most and practically the first thing I did on my return.

Inevitably however, the march of progress (and bulldozers) means since arriving back, I’ve discovered some of my favourite cafés in HCMC have gone MIA. And there have been some noticeable international (well, North American) chain additions: a long time coming, but Starbucks finally opened its first flagship store in Vietnam in 2013, in Saigon, (hello? why on earth would you want to go to Starbucks when you have all these great Vina homegrown cafés?). Anyway, here’s a nostalgic look at some of my old café haunts that are, alas, no more.

The Ones That Got Away

Mainly comprised of simple wooden tables and chairs strung along a leafy pavement on Nguyen Trung Truc Street, Saigon Xua Va Nay was the first café I’d planned to sip ca phe sua da once back in Vietnam, as IMO this is where they served one of Saigon’s finest CSD– a scientific marvel of just the right blend of coffee and sickly sweet condensed milk poured over ice. I also liked the daytime business vibe, where Saigonese businessmen and wheelers and dealers scoured the newspapers’ financial sections or watch their shares and stocks rise and crash) on their laptops. Disappointed to discover this café had morphed into a themed restaurant, but at least it wasn’t bulldozed down, like many others.

Vietnam’s answer to Starbucks, there are now several branches of Highlands Coffee across town. However, the former buzzy café alongside Le Loi boulevard was once their pioneering flagship. For locals (and some ex-pats), this was the place to be seen, especially with a laptop – one of the original laptop cities. The stylish, split-level, open-plan café and its broad street terrace was packed most of the time.

Around the corner, in the same office block, stood Paris Baguette. Like Highlands Coffee, this French-style bakery-café provided an ample-sized terrace to people watch from comfy rattan seats. As the name suggests, they also served yummy croissants and crusty baguettes. Apparently, this entire block was demolished years ago, making way for the swanky Saigon Centre mall, which now stands alongside the ongoing monstrosity of underground building works.

In Saigon’s old French Quarter, a stone’s throw from Notre Dame Cathedral, on leafy Han Thuyen Street, Creperie e Café is another sadly missed old haunt. This two-storey restored villa offered air-conditioned bliss and library-style tranquility. And its street side terrace, filled with al fresco tables shaded by white cotton umbrellas, offered dreamy views across Le Duan Park. Best of all, C&C served sinfully good crepes, piled with fresh berries and whipped cream. Now I find this lovely colonial pile stands derelict and has gone to ruin, literally (albeit standing on prime retail estate).

Oooooh La La!!! This lovely villa café has gone to ruin, literally

The Jaded Empress Post-Script: Okay, since this was written a few months ago, this being Saigon, et Viola! Some savvy business person DID takeover the old building after it was standing idle for months / years and has tastefully converted it to another cafe / coffee house, imaginatively called The Coffee Club. Not. A bit more slick than the previous beloved tenant and inevitably part of a generic coffee house chain, sorry but I miss Creperie e Café - and those sinful crepes.

I certainly lost my mojo when I heard MOJO, formerly the jewel in the crown of the swanky Sheraton Saigon hotel, was no more. When it launched, MOJO was regarded as one of Saigon’s hottest, most cutting-edge and funkiest new cafés. Amongst burnt orange, split-level interiors, laptop-toting locals and excited tourists sipped frosted coffee frappés and snacked on gourmet sandwiches. Inevitably, being on Dong Khoi, MOJO exited stage left for yet another designer store (yawn).

I’m surprised X-Café has disappeared. Frequented by Saigon’s hipper crowd (spot the odd aspiring model or singer) and lounge lizards, this trend-setter used to be one of the city’s coolest haunts – and not just for its Siberian-like air-conditioning or rare range of New Zealand-made ice-creams. This sprawling 1919 French-built villa transformed into an ultra-contemporary lounge-café met its demise a while back, bulldozed down on lower Pasteur Street, to make way for an ugly new concrete block housing a university building.
Thank the caffeine Gods, a couple of my old favourite cafes are still around and thriving.....

The Ones, thankfully, Still Here

The Highlands Coffee’s branch behind Diamond Plaza, at the rear of Notre Dame Cathedral, still continues to be hugely popular. Surrounded by Saigonese locals, I frequent here often and sit on the extensive broad open terrace overlooking Le Duan Park. It's the closest thing to a Parisian-style pavement café where locals really do watch the world go by (er, when they put their Smartphones down).

There’s always a buzzy vibe, especially at weekends, when tables get snapped-up by anyone from dreamy couples and family groups to smart businessmen. The super-strength ca phe sua da’s are well-priced, but geez, we’re all guilty of decimating the planet big-time, what with Highland Coffee’s obscene single-use plastic straws and disposable plastic containers.

Another “Vietnam’s answer to Starbucks” Phuc Long Coffee & Tea also boasts numerous café outlets across town. They have a vast flagship on Ngo Duc Ke Street, but my favourite branch is located a couple of blocks north on the corner of Dong Khoi – the broom cupboard-sized one, where you can just about swing a cat in there (or can you?). Claustrophobic's should seek their caffeine fix elsewhere.

However, at this Phuc Long mini-me, I just love that unmistakable and slightly nutty Saigonese café buzz and just inches off Dong Khoi, the people-watching possibilities, especially from the street-facing window counter. It’s also a handy spot to grab a quick robust latte or ca phe sua da in-between retail therapy and surprisingly good value, considering the downtown address.

And I often take home some of their excellent home-brand coffee beans that staff freshly grind on-site. On weekends, Phuc Long mini-me is usually standing room only; be prepared to squash-up with strangers at the cafés sole two tables and be prodded with shopping bags and elbows. If it’s impossible to squeeze anyone else in, you can always jump ship to Katinat, next door: another minuscule Vina lovely, albeit slightly larger with a couple of floors, with cramped little balconies and a few makeshift tables on the pavement out front.