MALAYSIANSKINI | When Azliana Rashidah Abd Rahaman, 45, Haslina Rameli, 28, and Anis Syahirah, 24, opened their K-Pop themed café Woori Kape (which means Our Café) in 2021, they had to rely on their families and friends for support.

Now, their café is attracting customers from as far as the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

These three ladies went from strangers to friends to business partners within five years. Sharing the same passion, they opened a cafe together despite the Covid-19 lockdowns at the time.

In a short period, the business partners formed strong bonds fueled by similar passions, visions, and hobbies for their new life journey.

Despite the age gap between them, their high-spirited determination and passion did not limit their passion in opening the cafe.

“Kak As (Rashidah) and I met each other through a friend at an event where Kak As was a representative for Malaysia in a cooking competition and I was interviewing her to write an article,” said Haslina to Malaysiakini.

Then, they joined an event called Kfood 18, and they met Anis Syahirah, who likes to be called Anyara. After that, they constantly kept in touch and would frequently meet up.

“I think everyone has a dream to own their own cafe. Me and Kak like cooking, especially Korean food. Meanwhile, Anyara is more into K-entertainment.

“Starting from there, we decided to open our own cafe just for fun. So we did some research and jotted down the menu of what we want to serve to customers,” Haslina said.

According to them, their cafe is heavily inspired by a Korean variety show called ‘Coffee Friends’ which is set in Jeju Island, South Korea.

“Throughout the MCO, we planned on how we are going to open the cafe and in November 2021, we managed to open it,” said Haslina.

Woori Kape is located in Taman Desa Business Park, Kuala Lumpur and is only open on weekends from 12pm to 6pm.

One of the reasons why the cafe is only open during the weekends is that the owners have full-time jobs and commitments and only are only free on the weekends to manage the cafe.

Rashidah is a freelance consultant, Haslina is a dietician, and Anyara is an accountant.

Getting a viral start

In the early days, they actively promoted their cafe on Instagram but failed to gain traction so they changed strategy.

“We moved to TikTok and that was a game changer,” said Haslina.

One of their TikTok videos which highlighted their journey of opening the cafe went viral with over a million views. From then on, customers kept pouring in.

“We are receiving more demand from our customers, so that’s also keeping us opening the cafe,” she said, sharing how they have a regular customer who is nine years old, who insists that her father brings her to the cafe.

Another story she shared was about how an elderly man climbed the stairs up to the cafe just to share the experience with his daughter who lived in the UK.

He showed them a photo of the dish his daughter longed to try and ordered it.

The father and daughter then had a video call together as he ate the food and described how it tasted to her.

Growing the business

In the early days of the cafe, the three of them faced several challenges when setting up and running the business.

“It is mostly finance because we need money to set up a place. The second one is to get customers to come to our cafe,” said Haslina.

Even as more customers were visiting the cafe, they also faced a new challenge - limited space - especially hosting events for large groups.

“Can you imagine serving 50 people at one time with a small kitchen and limited working space with only three of us?” said Haslina.

Some of the large events include organising K-pop idol birthday celebrations, also known as “Cupsleeve” events where fans can go to the cafe to celebrate an artiste’s birthday.

They also plan to organise more events not solely limited to K-entertainment for customers to participate in as well.

“We plan to organise other events like kimchi making,” said Haslina.

Creating a safe space

Woori Kape’s layout is similar to an apartment loft that imparts homey vibes to customers. Also helping the vibes is natural lighting coming in from a huge glass window.

Seating for customers include a comfortable sofa, coffee table, dining table, and on the second floor, a sitting table for those who want a bit more privacy.

One of their signature dishes is the homemade hanrabong (Jeju Island orange) kaya toast which was inspired by the show Coffee Friends.

It is essentially French toast served with the sweet and slightly sour hanrabong kaya that originates from Jeju Island, South Korea.

According to Haslina, they are the only cafe that serves hanrabong kaya in Malaysia.

The founders just wanted to create a safe space where everyone can enjoy their time during the weekends after surviving another work week.

“The keyword is weekend healing where you can enjoy yourself here and can go back to reality on Monday,” Haslina said.

The cafe also sells official albums and photocards of K-pop groups.

While they showcase interesting and unique Korean experiences, the owners want to focus on being a cafe first.

“We are not actually a K-entertainment-themed cafe.

“We are just a regular cafe but we wanted to create Korean vibes as much as possible and K-entertainment, K-pop, and Korean foods are just one of the experiences we currently provide,” said Haslina.

According to her, regular customers have said the ambience of the cafe was a big reason to keep them coming back.

The cafe welcomes everyone regardless of gender, race, or religion as long as they are seeking a place to chill and enjoy their food.

“Rather than a cafe, we want to create a safe space for everyone to enjoy what they like. You can enjoy Korean food, Korean entertainment, or buy K-Pop albums here.

“You can celebrate your favourite idol’s birthday with your friends and even do album unboxing here,” said Anyara.

The cafe’s clientele could be seen ranging from youths to working professionals, and families who dine and join the events there.

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