Greetings Kinyei Cafe Backers!
We’re nearly two months on from the end of our Kickstarter and wanted to share some of what we’ve been up to and what your support has enabled. The hot season is nearly upon us here in Battambang, but things have been ramping up we’ve got momentum going to sustain energy levels even through the most brutal of 40 degree weather!
Coffee + the Cafe
- We’ve introduced some western snacks to the menu. Khmer snacks such as sugared sweet potato fries were trialled but we couldn’t compete with the reigning kings of these snacks around the market on price or secret khmer snack-fu techniques.
- One of our backers requested the number of black coffees without ice sold. It is 57.
- Total khmer vs espresso coffees served: 84 : 436
- Nationalities served: 23
- Small lattes (“latte dtoich”) are the new rage
Introducing the small latte; objects in photo appear larger than they actually are
- Our staff regularly get told they make the best coffee in Cambodia. We’re pleased as punch about this.
- With a fridge breakdown, a burst pipe, and sudden wedding-related staff absences almost every week this month, we’re learning to deal with mini crises.
- Two team members, Phalla and Untac, participated in the first ever TEDx conference in Cambodia in February and are completely pumped to organize Battambang’s own in the coming months
- Competition is heating up as the staff battle it out on the espresso machine for best cappuccino. This week, best yogurt!
Untac's winning yogurt creation
Other projects developing in the space
- An exciting collaboration between local artists, Siem Reap’s ArtDeli and Kinyei is kicking off. “Sammaki” is going to be Battambang’s first collaborative art space, a gallery which exhibits local work without restriction, and hosts artists’ workshops and events. It will be run as a cooperative effort between 2 artists in residence, Kinyei and Jam’s Art Deli. We’ve already hosted planning workshops and it’s all hands on deck these next few weekends, as we’ll be prepping the space art(/rennovation) attack style. Check out how far we’ve come.
- The Open Classroom has seen lots of traffic in the last month with workshops run on women’s reproductive health, working with Cambodian culture, and cross-cultural creative expression
- Soksabike community tours have been operating out of the space and have been going great guns: Soksabike feature in local publication
- Seavyi Yonn, a Kinyei intern has started a skills club in the Open Workshop space, now 10 sessions in, that allows high school students to get together and share extra curricular skills such as email use, something they desperately want but cannot get without paying for pricey short courses.
Seavyi's internet workshop
It’s really exciting to see the communities spring up around this place, even within a few short months. I think we’ve got a really great year ahead of us and we’d like to invite you all to come visit some time!
Cheers, Kinyei
