A steady stream of customers — from the hip, young urbanite to toddler-toting families — has been visiting The B Side since it opened some 18 months ago, despite its fairly hidden location in a standalone commercial block tucked away in a residential area.
One of its owners, Sabahan Howard Ng, said that the idea for the café came about serendipitously; they had the space in the form of then newly-built Lido Plaza commercial centre and Ng knew two of his friends from Kuala Lumpur were looking for a business opportunity.
“There was a vacuum. We knew we could make something of it if we capitalised on the market,” he said. At that point, there were only two other coffee cafés in town.
Although the owners came from different backgrounds, they had one thing in common and that was to make the café aesthetically-pleasing.
“The experience of coming to our café has to be pleasing. We wanted to make the coffee café a Third Wave experience,” said Ng, referring to the coffee movement which focuses on treating coffee as an artisanal food and not just a commodity.
The B Side offers specialty coffee but stays away from marketing themselves as a specialty coffee joint. Their beans, from Kuala Lumpur-based roasters Seraph Awaken, will appeal to most coffee drinkers.
“The majority of people who come to the café are still not really into the coffee culture. They do not know what they want in their coffee. Maybe about 10 per cent are more particular, and are aware of what beans they would like,” he said.
The café offers espresso-based coffee drinks, as well as cold brews. Hand drips apparatus are on display but Ng says they are “not quite ready” to offer that as yet.
On the whole it appeals to a broad base of customers from big families to digital nomads, by offering cold pressed juices, sodas and a good selection of food.
By far their most popular dish is the soft shell crab pasta—a whole soft shell crab battered and fried atop a bed of spaghetti in a cream and butter-based sauce with chilli padi and curry leaves – is ordered by almost every table.
Aside from a selection of pastas, there are also breakfast options, including pancakes, French toast and shakshouka which are popular.
“As much as we like people enjoying our coffee and food, we also want to offer something else and be part of the community,” added Ng, who also works in his family’s property development business and is a classical musician.
The café exhibits the works of budding local artists on their white brick walls through commission.
“It’s a way to expose our young Sabahan talent and provide a space for their work to get known. We must provide various reasons for people to continuously come back to the café, especially one like ours which has above average pricing.
“It’s not just about the quality of food. We wanted to add value to the experience,” said Ng, adding that the wall exhibit rotation is every few months.
The B Side has also started hosting an open-air art market every month, where local artists and crafters come together to show off their wares and products.
“We might not be the specialty coffee leaders in town, but we want to provide the human relations and culture of a community café,” he said.
The B Side
21, Ground floor, Lido Plaza, Jalan Nosoob Hungab, Penampang
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Friday, 10am-11pm, Saturday to Sunday, 9am-midnight
Tel : 088-715453
