Opening mid-pandemic, 2020
In July 2020, in the middle of Saigon's lockdown days, Quỳnh and Phương opened Café Slow in the Huỳnh Tịnh Của alley — not just to sell coffee, but to make a place for people: warm light, vinyl music, and classic recipes perfected to the point of needing no showmanship.
Nguyễn Phương Quỳnh is the café's coffee hand: years at Kafeville in Hanoi, mentored by its owner in Italian coffee technique, then years of trial and error to develop Café Slow's own Colombia + Brazil arabica blend, roasted with Koke (Taiwan).
Nguyễn Anh Phương is the atmosphere hand: a theatre director and classical pianist since age six. He brought into the alley a real piano, a vinyl shelf with a turntable, a Paperbacks Saigon bookshelf — and two mascots, Cookie & Đậu Đen, a pair of French bulldogs.
The ground floor of the tube house: a wooden bar, warm pendant lights, a communal table for laptop workers. Up the mezzanine: sofas, full-height glass facing the tree-lined corrugated wall, Edison bulbs on branch-like fixtures — quiet, laptop-friendly, and LGBTQ+ friendly. Open 7:00 – 19:00 daily.
“We didn't just want to open a coffee shop, we wanted to create a space for people, a community.” — Quỳnh & Phương (Saigoneer, 2022)