Now at your kopi tiam: Wine to go with char siew rice

Now at your kopi tiam: Wine to go with char siew rice

More heartland coffee shops given go-ahead to serve wine with local fare. -ST
Arti Mulchand

Fri, Jan 25, 2008
The Straits Times

CARE for a burgundy with your beef noodles, or a Cabernet Sauvignon with your char siew rice? That's the heady mix one Ang Mo Kio coffee shop is serving up these days.

"Red wine available here" declared a large sign, in both English and Chinese, next to a wine-filled beer fridge outside the A* coffee shop in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 8.

Its bilingual menu, with the heading, "A* Wine Valley", offers eight reds and two whites.

And like in a true heartland coffee shop, no one will bat an eyelid if you ask for ice for your already overchilled red wine.

"Yes, customers do ask. Because many of them are used to drinking beer with ice... This is a new experience for them," said coffee-shop manager Bob Tan, 32, a wine lover.

His wine selection, from Australia, Chile and France, does not come cheap - bottle prices start at $19.90. But Mr Tan said that since wines were put on the menu early last month, over 100 bottles have been sold.

He said the idea of serving wine came up in 2004, but he could not get a licence until last year, when the rules changed.

Seven coffee-shop and foodcourt locations in areas deemed low-risk for "potential law and order issues" have since been given the go-ahead to serve wine, but not hard liquor.

Even then, getting his hands on the wine was not as easy as Mr Tan had thought.

Wine distributors were not keen on the idea and at least four turned him away. But he eventually got a few to buy into the heartland wine potential.

Then he had to retrain most of his drinks-stall staff, many of whom do not even drink wine, let alone deftly handle a corkscrew or pronounce the labels with panache.

When The Straits Times visited A* earlier this week, most of the regulars - like Mr Andy Sng, 44 - seemed not quite ready to trade their beer swig for a wine sip.

Mr Sng felt that wine, with more than three times the amount of alcohol than beer, was too strong for a weekday.

Ms Joyce Zheng, 24, who eats at the coffee shop every day, said she drank wine only at bars and clubs because of the "atmosphere".

But Ms Alison Tan, who is in her 40s, happily tucked into her roast pork and duck rice dish while sipping her wine.

Mr Tan insisted there were brisk sales on the weekends.

"Customers want to be able to enjoy wine for under $30 and not have to spend $100 at a bar," he said.

He does get some odd requests.

One beer drinker wanted to know if his wine came with a "char bor" ( Hokkien for woman ) referring to the typically young beer promoters at coffee shops.

Some asked for wine in regular cups, in case they broke the delicate stemware.

Who knows, Mr Tan may next find someone asking to tar pau (take away) a wine bottle with his beef noodles.