Brewhouse moves to a new space at Agora

Every morning since 2017, Brewhouse’s iconic coffee cart has been whipping up delicious drinks and picturesque lattes to fuel the Yale-NUS College community. With the College’s consolidation into Elm and Cendana Residential Colleges, the student-run café has recently moved from their usual spot at the Elm Courtyard to Café Agora, located outside the Yale-NUS Library to serve the community better.

Halcyon visiting Brewhouse at their new space at Café . Image provided by Rachel Fong.

“Operating out of Café Agora has been really lovely,” Mira Dewan (Class of 2024), Brewhouse Co-Manager, said. “It was really heartening to see the whole area come to life when we opened a few weeks ago and to see familiar and new faces come by,” she added. Mira added that the Brewhouse team is also grateful for the logistical upgrades that Café Agora offers them, such as having more storage space for their equipment, additional counter space, and sinks.

Moreover, the move has allowed Brewhouse to expand its outreach to a wider audience. “Being in a somewhat more visible location has also started to attract more members of the National University of Singapore (NUS) community, and I see this as an opportunity for Brewhouse to do what it does best – bring people together over a good cup of coffee,” Mira shared. They have also hired a new batch of baristas for the academic year from both the Yale-NUS College and NUS College communities.

The Brewhouse team at work. Image provided by Rachel Fong.

Of course, the move was not entirely rosy and came with its fair share of challenges. “It felt like we were trying to set up an actual café with the experience levels of student baristas,” Rachel Fong (Class of 2025), Brewhouse Training Director, said.

“The administrative process of just trying to get keys to the space, sending out emails, navigating new hygiene and safety regulations, and figuring out new standard operating procedures was incredibly stressful,” she shared. Nevertheless, the team is relieved to have moved in and are slowly becoming more comfortable with the new space.

Though both Mira and Rachel miss the space at Elm Courtyard, they are hopeful that the community can find the same warmth and comfort at the new space at Café Agora. “I miss mornings in Elm where everyone used to crowd around our cart and spilled into the green spaces to linger and make conversation,” Rachel shared.

Latte art at Brewhouse. Image provided by Rachel Fong.

Having been in Brewhouse for the past three to four years, the veteran baristas have seen multiple iterations of Brewhouse from the COVID-19 pandemic until now. “I feel like Brewhouse as a service and as a community has lived many lives, and each semester feels different (in a good way). For me, it just keeps getting better and better” Rachel said, reflecting on her time with the team. “It’s a wonderful feeling to see how much the wider community enjoys the fruits of our labour and to see our own baristas improve their skills,” she added.

Last academic year, the team hosted multiple events and initiatives, such as a manual coffee brew bar and sharing session at Elm Courtyard with beans from Sumatra. The event was the product of an educational trip to Sumatra where they learnt about coffee production from farm to cup.

After taking some time to settle down at their new space and train their new baristas, Brewhouse intends to continue annual Yale-NUS traditions. “The community can most definitely look forward to something special on Halloween,” Rachel hinted.