Done up to impress

Done up to impress

The heritage enclave of George Town is emerging with a new look as boutique hotels and eateries spring up to cater to the hoards of tourists visiting the area.

SINCE the inner city heritage enclave of George Town made it into the prestigious Unesco World Heritage Site list, investors and locals have been busy restoring its old pre-war shophouses and turning them into boutique hotels and eateries.

Visitors going on a heritage trail here will find some very nice new (and old) places where they can catch their breath. Many of the old shophouses have also been converted into quirky food outlets where patrons can indulge in Penang’s famous cuisine as well as some not-so-local additions like pasta.

Among them is Amelie Café along Armenian Street.

Regular customer Felicity Choo loves the quaintness of the place. “It’s very small and you’d be lucky to get a table, but I still like coming here because it’s got a quaint, rustic charm I haven’t found anywhere else.”

There are plants everywhere and one could easily mistake the place for a nursery, says Choo, who actually missed it when she went there for the first time because of the foliage.

“Unlike the posh and modern outlets that have recently mushroomed here, Amelie really captures the spirit of George Town’s heritage enclave,” she says.

Surprisingly, the mismatched furniture, jars of guppy fish on the tables, hanging pots of plants, homemade signage, menus made from old cardboard boxes and holes on the wall blend together to create a quirky, arty vibe.

“This whole do-it-yourself concept could have looked really cheap and tacky but they managed to pull it off beautifully,” Choo says, adding that the food is reasonably priced.

“My absolute favourite is the Spaghetti Carbonara. Of course, you can’t compare the price with that of fast food outlets, but here the food has a homemade taste.

“The drink concoctions are also very interesting. Take the banana and passion fruit mix, for instance. They serve the drinks in jam jars, which makes it quite fun.

“I also like that the owners prepare the food in an open kitchen. It’s nice to watch.”

Amelie is not air-conditioned, but like most pre-war shophouses, it is airy.

Owners Loh Choon Kueng and Khor Gaik Ee, partners in both love and business, say Amelie was named after their favourite movie. (Amélie is a 2001 romantic comedy directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.)

Having toyed with the idea of setting up their own café for the last 10 years, they finally took the plunge with Amelie more than a year ago.

“The idea was to have a place where people could just sit down and take in the ambiance and laid-back lifestyle George Town is known for,” they say. “We started with just two tables and now we have four.”

Loh and Khor, who love to scout for old broken furniture and bits (which Choon Kueng will tinker with, Khor says), have furnished Amelie to resemble their own home.

“Our customers always tell us how much they love the recycled look and concept. But what you see is not a concept; it’s who we are. This is exactly how our home looks.”

Loh, who was trained as a graphic designer, makes the pasta and sauces while Khor prepares the yogurt, toasts the cereal and is the resident barrista and accountant.

“When we started the café, we didn’t even have money for a roller to make the pasta. I had to use a bottle to do it,” he quips.

When the couple first saw the place, it had been renovated into a relatively modern office lot.

Loh, 37, says he had to strip the place bare to reveal the true character of the heritage building.

“I gave myself six months to get everything ready but as I was working there every day, tourists who passed by kept asking to come in.

“Many said the café was ready for customers so we opened in less than two months.”

Amelie opens daily except Mondays and closes for one week every two or three months when the couple takes off for a holiday. “We do everything ourselves here so if we don’t take these short breaks, we will burn out,” Loh says.

For some Swiss treats, just wander down the road and you will stumble upon Edelweiss Cafe, a restaurant that blends seamlessly into a row of 150-year-old heritage shophouses.

The place has an old-world charm to it with an eclectic mix of Baba Nyonya collectables and a giant tower clock that, it is said, once sat atop a church in Regensburg, Germany.

At King Street, a little gem aptly named Coffee Lane has been slowly gaining popularity among aficionados of the brew.

Terry Beh set up the coffee shop about a year ago with the idea of serving coffee made with the siphon method.

“As an insurance agent, I am a regular at big coffee chains like Starbucks because that’s where I meet my clients,” Beh says. “After 10 years, I decided to open a place of my own because I love coffee so much.”

Beh opted for siphon coffee makers instead of the usual Espresso machines to offer something a bit different.

“I like this method because it maintains the character of the beans. The siphon method was invented in Belgium more than a hundred years ago and in Japan and Taiwan, it’s very popular,” he says.

Coffee Lane regulars can even request for a mini gas stove to brew the coffee themselves. The siphon maker automatically heats the water up to 90°C, which is the optimum brewing temperature, Beh shares.

The pre-war double-storey shophouse is only among a handful of places that serve Kopi Luwak (which, to the uninitiated, are coffee beans that have been eaten by and passed through the digestive tract of the Indonesian civet cat), alongside other imported quality beans like the Sumatera Mandheling and Jamaican Blue Mountain. Prices of these quality brews range from RM10 to RM80 per cup.

The price for the Kopi Luwak, which is drawing many curious customers, starts from RM50, Beh says. (Incidentally, talkshow queen Oprah Winfrey has featured the Kopi Luwak, also dubbed the “world’s most expensive coffee”, on her show.)

Coffee Lane also serves popular Western and Asian favourites including tom yum, sandwiches and nasi lemak. Everything is prepared by the family.

The shop’s original interior has been maintained, with the beautifully restored wooden doors and panels bearing intricate gold leaf carvings. The fresh lime green walls also provide an excellent contrast to the deep brown antique panels and staircase.

Just opposite Coffee Lane is The Sire Museum Restaurant.

Formerly the house of philanthropist and Chinese businessman Yeap Chor Ee, the fine-dining restaurant dedicates its upstairs gallery to an impressive collection of old photographs and antiques.

On Chulia Street, the famous backpacker haunt Ecco Café has retained the “Chinaman coffeeshop” interior, although the owner and chef Law Soo Hock’s menu is all about homemade pastas and pizzas.

“Tourists are curious because we serve Italian food in a very Chinese setting,” he says. “But when I took over the coffeeshop about five years ago, I knew there was a history to this place that I did not want to lose.”

A new outlet that has already garnered a strong following is Kopi Cine on Stewart Lane.

A stone’s throw away from the famed Goddess of Mercy temple, Kopi Cine opened six months ago and is part of the Straits Collection comprising five adjoining shophouses restored by Bon Ton, the company that owns the award-winning Bon Ton Restaurant & Resort and Temple Tree in Langkawi.

Besides Kopi Cine, the Straits Collection has a mini public library and boutique rooms that are available for rent.

Built in 1927 in the Straits Eclectic style, the facade has been carefully restored, so much so that the plaster walls have retained their discoloured hue. If you pop by, be sure to check out the old coffee roasting area where they used to roast and grind coffee in the traditional way.

Havana Lim lists Kopi Cine as “one of the most interesting cafés” she has visited.

“I just love antiques and old buildings so I really like it here. It’s obvious the owner put in a lot of effort to amass the collection of furniture and antiques for the place.

“It’s just so cosy and nice that I really feel at home. Kopi Cine is just very different from most modern coffee outlets,” she enthuses.

The 23-year-old fresh graduate says she would “most definitely” recommend it to both tourists and locals because of its uniqueness and desserts.

“The coffee and cakes are superb,” she adds.

-News courtesy of The Star-