Apartment Coffee is cafe minimalism at its finest. Aside from being instagram-perfect, the designers have gone out of their way to remove all obstructions between the consumer and the coffee experience. This ethos spreads all the way to their packaging, which is dressed down and honest. We can’t wait to show you more of the beautiful coffee experience that you can have here.
Apartment’s understated interiors are so clean that you’ll barely notice the incredible Hario Buono kettle that is actually a World Brewers Cup Trophy. Qing He, the man at the bar and owner of Apartment Coffee, is one of Singapore’s Brewers Cup champions, and placed 6th internationally when he travelled to Brazil to represent the island nation. The understated placement of the trophy is perfectly on-brand for Apartment Coffee, as the entire place feels like you stepped into someone’s beautifully minimalist home, so it’s displayed in that same fashion, juxtaposed with vinyl records and books by flavor experts Rene Redzepi and Maxwell Collona-Dashwood.
Apartment Coffee is in Singapore at 161 Lavender St. It is walking distance from the Bendemeer MRT Station.
But it’s easy to overlook how excellent their espresso service is in this cafe. The temptation is to try their pour-overs — which are all so obviously well executed — but definitely do not miss on what they’re doing using their machine setup. They have not cut any corners with their Synesso, EK 43 and mythos 2 setup. One of the things that you really feel here, especially with the espresso machine and grinder setup on top of the counter, is that you’re kind of involved in the discussion that’s happening in the creation of your drink.
You sit right across them as they make it, seeing the bits and pieces surrounding the bar, and you actually feel the vibration of the machines on the counter as the drink is being made, that tactile interaction comes across as a very deliberate attempt to involve both the customer and the barista in the preparation and drinking process.