You can go home again... to this nostalgic coffee bar in Melaka’s historic Jalan Hang Kasturi
MELAKA, April 26 — It feels like coming home.
Which might seem self-evident when the place in question is located in my hometown of Melaka, but there is also a saying that you can never go home again.
(The actual phrasing is slightly different, taken from Thomas Wolfe’s novel You Can't Go Home Again, but you get the general idea.)
For those of us who have moved away, typically to bigger cities or even overseas, where one grew up can be a source of nostalgia but sometimes not even that.
Look out for the horse mural that leads to the vintage style café storefront.
Not when the streets have narrowed or widened or disappeared completely. Not when shopping malls have been erected on the fields where you used to play soccer and bullock pulling carts used to roam and graze.
Not when just about everyone else you knew from childhood and school days have also moved away or migrated. It’s the bane of small town life. Progress is necessary and inevitable but not always kind.
Which is why it feels like a gift to walk into the new Coffeebar125+, now located along the Melakan heritage area of Jalan Hang Kasturi. Run by KL-born Melakan resident Jacqueline Wen, the café used to take up a small rental space in Jalan Tengkera, sharing the shoplot with a Peranakan restaurant.
Regulars like to sit at the long coffee bar to chat with owner Jacqueline Wen (left). Homemade bagels (right).
I remember how, half the time, the customers who walked in would be asking for Nyonya laksa. Wen would patiently direct them to the restaurant at the rear. But it was a good start for a young business owner as some walk-ins and Peranakan food lovers would discover her delicious cuppas too.
It hasn’t been a straightforward journey for Wen either. She had studied in Melbourne, where interestingly enough she wasn’t enamoured of the city’s flat whites given she was on a student budget.
It was only when she returned to KL that she joined RAWCoffee as a barista, making her a veteran of Malaysia’s then burgeoning specialty coffee industry. Even today, when I sip on a cup of her flat white, the mouthfeel of the denser, more delicate microfoam hits differently.
Wen roasts her own beans so she can adjust the profile of her coffee to suit her customers’ taste.
She later moved to Melaka to work at a café along the historical Jalan Tokong, drawn by the slower and more relaxed pace of life. Years passed. Along with picking up new coffee roasting skills, she also picked up a paramour — marrying a Melakan boy and starting a family together.
Which is sort of what Coffeebar125+ feels like today, even more than it did before: a place for a family of strangers and friends to gather. To visit, look out for the horse mural — a terrific confluence of Chinese calligraphy and street art — at the entrance of Jalan Hang Kasturi.
From there, it’s only a few steps till you are greeted by the vintage style café storefront; it’s located opposite the Fui Chew clan house so you can’t miss it. Upon entering you’d be greeted by the sight of a few regulars sitting at the long coffee bar where they can chat with Wen while she makes their coffee.
A cornucopia of coffee brewing paraphernalia.
The décor is subsumed by various shades of emerald, lightened by dashes of cream and linen. The aroma of freshly baked treats and freshly brewed coffee perfume the air. Wen’s homemade bagels have become a breakfast staple for early birds (her opening hours encourage customers not to rise too late).
But it is the coffee that is the true highlight here, naturally. Wen roasts her own beans so she can adjust the profile of her coffee to suit her customers’ taste.
Those who choose to sit at the long bar can meditate on a cornucopia of coffee brewing paraphernalia, wondering which Wen might use for their cuppa. While waiting for mine, I pick apart a simple but satisfying apple crumble topped generously with yoghurt and granola.
Earlier, I had asked for help from one of the regulars with the city’s new parking app; it was his first time using it too. Wen observed that the regular and I went to rival schools across from each other; I wink and said, It’s okay, we are all friends here now.
Simple but satisfying: apple crumble with yoghurt and granola.
And that is what it feels like to come home. Thomas Wolfe was wrong, in the end; we can return, if to a place we have never been before, to find a ready family of friendly strangers waiting for us.
Coffeebar125+
89, Jalan Hang Kasturi, Melaka
Open Tue-Sun 8:30am-2:30pm; Mon closed
Phone: 019-211 5883
IG: instagram.com/coffeebar125/
FB: facebook.com/coffeebar125plus/
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