A Coffee Roaster by daytime, an alcohol bar at night. That makes me feel like they live with two identities, similar to Batman, and it's how exactly the owner, Tady, keeps his living. During the daytime, you don't often see him inside the roaster. But his colleagues do the roasting, making curry and tasty desserts, and serving customers. Most of the time, he is either busy running delivery, taking care of errands, or sleeping. When you see him around his shop, he always carries a big smile with a sunny attitude. At night, he transforms from "Tady" into the Dark Knight wearing the bartender suit to mix drinks and patrol the nightlife society.
When I used to work in Kaohsiung, visiting his roaster became a weekly therapy to cure my caffeine addiction. Not only there for the latte, but occasionally their excellent crepe cake and curry rice. Sometimes, I would also bring coffee and desserts like pound cake back to the office to cheer up my marketing team. Tady and his fellows are generous enough to make delivery to my office's door regardless of how small your order is, even just a latte. Behind a small alley, their customer demographic seems to me is mostly the regulars. Whenever I walked in during lunchtime, familiar faces showed up again and again. Of course, I saw some new faces there from time to time to explore their coffee and famous curry, which delicately plated like an upscale restaurant, no matter your order is dine-in or takeout.
Established in 2016 and survived for at least five whole years, their success undoubtfully wasn't coming by luck. It's a perfect combination of super-friendly service and quality products across the board, brought by two great helpers, one in charge of coffee production and one managing the catering. In addition, their latte art craftmanship was stunningly impressive. Every time a latte was presented, I was dazzled by how creative and skillful they were, exactly is the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Their crepe cake and lemon cake (filled with hand-made "Real" lemon creme) were another attraction driving me back to visit repeatedly.
Frankly speaking, their interior design isn't the type you'll destinate to run there for taking Instagram photos for the hype. And clearly, that's where their direction goes.
Last, they do provide credit lines to those loyal, long-time customers for their financial and shopping convenience. During the holiday seasons and special occasions, they also design and customize the gift kits to gain a higher topline and serve the commercial market.
Still, digitalization may be something they need to put more consideration on. With the lack of accepting credit card payments and their eCommerce website, they could only sell their roasting beans on a marketplace that pays the expensive commission. Not to mention, creating their own branded merchandise for fan loyalty and sales in scale is not possible under this circumstance.
Retail success profoundly depends on operation management and quality execution, but not how creative the business idea is.
TADY COFFEE | Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Products Score: 90 Service Score: 90 Store Score: 75
Final {verdict}: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4/5
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