CHONG CAPHE, the authentic Vietnamese cafe

Hello hive friends!
It's been a while since I last posted in this Architecture+design community. Seems like about a month ago. I was busy taking care of my sick mother and then after that I prepared for the wedding. I just got married by the way, Lol. I also just finished a holiday to Vietnam. Therefore, this time I want to discuss the architecture of a cafe that I visited in Vietnam. This was the first cafe I visited while there. It's called Chong Caphe and I think the architecture of this cafe is very interesting to discuss.

Chong caphe is located on a side street in the center of sapa town. This is one of the most popular cafes in the area. I came to this cafe because of a recommendation from some influencers on social media. And it turns out that when I got there, this cafe has quite a lot of customers. When I arrived in front of the cafe, I was mesmerized by its authentic Vietnamese architecture. You can see in the two pictures above how this cafe looks when viewed from the front.

When you enter the cafe, you can immediately see the ordering area. Once again I was fascinated by the cashier's table which was made with a pile of natural stone combined with wood on top. This really caught my attention, because I have never found a cafe with architecture as authentic as this. To the left of the ordering area are some of their coffee products. There are also several pictures hanging on the wall.

For tables and chairs, they put them close together. But strangely this doesn't make customers feel uncomfortable. The tables and chairs also look shabby, but I think this is interesting because there are rarely coffee shops with a concept like this. I actually applaud them because they maintain the authenticity of Vietnam instead of making a modern cafe.

We move on to the second floor of the Chong caphe. To go up to the second floor, we can climb the stairs located in the cafe terrace area. The atmosphere on the second floor is different from the first floor. If the first floor is more crowded with visitors, the second floor is actually quiet and only a few people. This second floor is more suitable for people who don't like crowds and like to be alone. The design is almost similar to the first floor, only on the second floor there is no natural stone like in the ordering area. The walls too, on the second floor use red brick. The second floor also has more wooden elements, even the floor uses wood. For table chairs, the same as downstairs. What I really regret is the part near the window, they put too much wood and it interferes if you want to see the view outside. Initially I wanted to sit on the top floor, but because I couldn't see the outside view, I chose to sit on the first floor. One more interesting thing about this cafe is that they put a board. So, visitors can write messages on paper and then stick them there. Not only paper contains messages, some people also hang their photos there.

All pictures were taken using Samsung A24