It started with tea.
We opened a tiny counter at The Sail @ Marina Bay selling Japanese matcha, houjicha, and genmaicha — imported direct from Japan. We called it The Matcha Project. But the owner was always a coffee person. So we served coffee too.
Foot traffic was poor. The basement didn't do us any favours. Matcha never quite took off in the CBD — office workers wanted lattes, not ceremonial grade.
The $3 coffee. Meant to last a few months.
So we tried something. Three-dollar coffee. A promotion to get people through the door. It was meant to last a few months. It lasted years.
The coffee crowd grew. Then it kept growing. Every morning, every afternoon, sometimes both. The matcha quietly took a back seat. At some point we had to be honest about what we'd become.
We changed the name to Volks Coffee Co. As in folks. Coffee for all folks. A coffee-centric name for what was now, unmistakably, a coffee business.
For nearly nine years, we worked out of that basement corner at The Sail. No signage worth mentioning. Just regulars who found us once and never left. We became part of the routine. That was enough.
Next door was Al Marche — a grocery store with a nice little corner serving solid sandwiches. Their lunch crowd was always packed. We saw each other every single day. We weren't partners. We were neighbours. That matters later.
We moved to One Raffles Quay. More visible, more space, same energy. We dropped "Coffee Co" from the name. We serve more than coffee now — and we want to be recognised for all of it.
We added a bar. Beer, wine, cocktails from 5pm. Coffee shop by day, neighbourhood bar by night. The lobby's living room.
Al Marche and us finally did what neighbours do — we teamed up. Volks × Al Marche at Marina Bay Link Mall. Two brands, one counter, same easy energy we had at The Sail.
And the tea? Still here. The Matcha Project never went away — it just stepped back while coffee took the spotlight. Japanese tea is still on the menu, still sourced the same way. The pink cup isn't a sidekick. It's where the whole thing began.
Ten years in. Still a kiosk. Still no fuss. Good things for all folks.