Pursuit of Happiness

This is a reflective post about places to eat rather than about a place to eat. What makes me happy as a customer at a cafe or a restaurant? What makes me go back to a place over and over again? For me, the refrain from the theme song from Cheers would be the one that does it for me.

Sometimes you want to go
Where everybody knows your name
And they’re always glad you came

There are some nice cafes which are just a 10 minute walk from my house but really don’t carry any warmth at all despite my having gone there many times. Thanks to their use of an online ordering system, I can see how much I have spent there. They don’t make me happy.

At the same time, there’s the lady who sells chap fan at the kopitiam a couple of streets away who knows my order and will have a plate ready for me during breakfast. Or the Myanmarese waiter at the same kopitiam who knows my drink order. Or the team at Starman Cafe that always makes me glad that I am there. (The boys at Starman also have a wicked 80s playlist. Go figure, they were born way after that period)