We can agree the indie café culture is not just about coffee anymore, but also about the presentation, vibes, and ambience.
Frontrunners in Singapore such as Chye Seng Huat and Apartment Coffee each ticked the boxes with industrial and minimalist-white concept respectively, and have earned loyal fans.
Newcomer Lucid which is also found at the Jalan Besar area, will likely attract café-hoppers to visit soon. The reasons are plenty.
Its location at Hamilton Road is considered ‘off-beat’ yet central enough.
And its industrial-grey look with cement flooring, modern matt-silver furniture and a minimalist look will appeal to the Instagram generation.
We have seen a couple of such themed cafes at Bangkok and Seoul (such as Anthracite Coffee Roasters), but such a consistently-grey-look is not that commonly found in Singapore, yet. (It did remind me of Almost Famous at CHIJMES, and I suspect perhaps they share a common co-owner or designer?)
Lucid is a collaboration between 37 waves – a distributor for professional coffee equipment and tools; and Thought Bakes.
The menu is kept lean, with offerings of coffee drinks such as Black Coffee ($3.50), Iced Black ($5.50), Strong White ($5.00), Iced White ($6.00), Mocha ($5.50) and Chocolate ($5.00) for non-coffee drinkers.
In terms of bakes, there are choices of Banana Bread ($3.50), Brownie ($2.00), Financier ($1.00); and an Ivoire Chocolate Mousse ($9.00) called “Cloud Beta v0.1” which was unfortunately available when I visited both times.
The Iced White ($6.00) that I had was decent – smooth and well-balanced, and could probably give the more established big boys a run for their money.
Definitely preferred it to the Iced Black ($5.50) which a notch strong in terms of acidity level and bitterness.
To be more, the pastries from the Banana Bread ($3.50), Brownie ($2.00) to Financier ($1.00) were well-baked, retained its moisture and was more too sweet.
I wondered about the portion size; and whether they could give it their own spin and twist (such as an interestingly-flavoured Brownie) such as it could have a stronger “Lucid” branding.
Promising space considering this is just their soft-launch (and during CNY period where supplies can be hard to get). I think the crowds will pack in soon.
Lucid
38 Hamilton Road Singapore 209208
Opening Hours: 10am – 6pm (Mon – Sun)
Other Related Entries
Chye Seng Huat (Tyrwhitt Road)
Apartment Coffee (Lavender Street)
Almost Famous (CHIJMES)
Alchemist (MacTaggart Road)
Black Fairy Coffee (Tyrwhitt Road)
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