Double A Cafe KL - Like an online fashion retailer

When Aiman and I had the idea of opening up Double A, we had limited knowledge in F&B. The only thing we were really good at was EATING (who's not come on!), and agreeing on what was good and not to our taste buds. Aiman was passionate about coffee, able to differentiate between good and bad coffee and I was just that love-to-cafe-hop kinda girl who used to do it every other day whilst I was working in London previously. 

Unable to bake, I thought why don't we replicate those multi-label fashion online retailer where a variety of designer brands are offered under one roof - just that instead of fashion, it would be desserts. For a start, we plan to stock local dessert brands especially of those from homebakers that do not have physical shops and do not sell their cakes by slices. Thought hard about it and I decided that hey, why don't we create a go-to platform for Malaysians to get their favourite desserts - clearly a gap that we saw still needed to be filled here in Malaysia. I remembered sometimes scheduling our weekends before to make sure we get to try a few cafes in a day, so having a few brands under one roof was clearly a great idea to me. 

I had a vision for Double A and wanted to create a cafe that customers can pop in to grab well known desserts and best sellers of a few home bakers at once, carry their best sellers and cater not only to local taste buds but also for foreigners and tourists visiting Malaysia.

Aiman left the cake operations to me (jokingly calling me CCO, Chief Cake Officer or Cake Boss) and right then I realised that it was not easy to ensure which brands do we engage. From doing my research, getting in touch, pitching the idea, sampling and making a final decision. It really felt like the job of a head buyer at a fashion store!

Double A opened its doors to public on the 16th of May 2015 (and we did this to celebrate our monthlyversary which we no longer celebrate like we used to before we got married lol!), 3 months after the idea hit us! Some said for an idea to spark, planning, renovation and having onboard brands for the soft launch in 3 months we were considered very fast. Aiman and I are very impatient like that sometimes haha! I even offered to paint during the renovation but Adrien said "no" for fear I might create a mess instead, ho well more rest time for me then :D 

We started off with 3 great brands - Sugar Rush, Gulabakery and Gateauxlicious and Alhamdulillah today we are carrying 8 amazing home grown brands! Yup, EIGHT and even I can't believe it sometimes! Managing supplies can be quite a challenge having to match demand from customers and supplies from our partners but it has taught me a lot of things that no book can ever teach me, but thank God for amazing partners I'm working with :) So, what are you waiting for, drop by Double A if you would like a slice from all these amazing bakers! 

Sugar Rush

Gulabakery

Gateauxlicious

Cake Jalan Tiung

That Last Slice

The Kitchen Guardian

Frost & Flourish

Sugarpods