Street Food Warms Your Heart: Flee Away Cafe at 70 Dunlop Street S(209398) - The Concept, Logo, Design, Positioning, Background, Ownership of Flee Away Cafe

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Flee Away Cafe at 70 Dunlop Street S(209398) - The Concept, Logo, Design, Positioning, Background, Ownership of Flee Away Cafe

The Introduction

Flee Away Cafe located at 70 Dunlop Street was conceptualized in June 2013, materialised in Jan 2014, and started operations only in May 2014 by 3 Founding partners who bring with them totalling 60 years food & F&B industry experience: Fan Hui Ling(Ling for short), Dickson Kwek, Wendy Chong.

The Concept of Flee Away Cafe

Everybody wants to escape, take a break, get out, flee away even if it is for a few minutes, 15 minutes or more, from their stressful lifestyle, from their work & family life once in a while to recharge, unwind, chill out. Childhood is the most care free period of our life, so when Ling, Dickson & Wendy started Flee Away Cafe they wanted it to have a nostalgic cum homely cum cosy atmosphere.

The Birth of Flee Away Cafe

The Founders being veterans in F&B industry had the vision to create a cafe culture that encourages people to unwind, 'flee away' to a time & space that is nostalgic with an ambience that is reminiscent of their childhood days that enables them to relax & be at home. With this in mind they actively scour Singapore for a place to launch Flee Away & settled upon 70 Dunlop Street which is an area fast becoming an indie space like Haji Lane & Kampong Glam's equivalent in Little India.

The Flee Away Logo

The Flee Away Cafe logo depicting a hot air balloon with an oriental coffee cup (found commonly in a local coffee shop) is the brainchild of Ling (one of the Co-Founders of the cafe). Ling shared that she chose the hot air balloon as it is an epic representation of a holiday getaway, and since it rides on air gives an image of getting away, rather flee away from your current situation to unwind. She adds the coffee cup to replace the usual wicket basket used in hot air balloon to lend a local twist to the design.

Design & Decor

To bring a nostalgic vintage atmosphere to the cafe the partners found much treasures through working with online vendors of vintage retro products & purchase many retro furnishings & fixtures.

The entire design & furnishings at Flee Away Cafe are done by Ling & her Co-Founders. Every single piece of decor and paraphenalia you find displayed on the shelves, table-top, walls are the result of the three partners scouring online facebook shops owned mainly by vintage hobbyists & collectors who are able to supply their goods to add color & variety & spunk to complete the cafe decor. Ling gets some of the toys overseas, whilst the rest she just happen to notice some cute toys & she simply buys them right away.

Positioning

Flee Away Cafe is positioned as a casual family friendly cafe. This is a home grown brand which Ling & her Co-Founders develop & trademarked for Singapore.

Background Experience & Role

Ms Fan Hui Ling ( Ling for short), 40, my host for this review herself started in the nightlife & F&B industry, at a tender age of 20, & has worked many years for a very established bar in Singapore with live band music. Over the years Ling has accumulated a wealth of experience spanning from Operations, Costing, HR, Recruitment & Finance, Marketing & PR, Social media management, inventory control, Business Development.

Ling's role in Flee Away Cafe involve the overall Concept & Branding, Marketing PR management, Menu Planning, Interior design & decor of the cafe.

Ownership

Currently Fan Hui Ling (Ling), Dickson Kwek & Wendy Chong are the 3 Founding partners of Flee Away Cafe.
Dickson Kwek is her husband & Co-founder & has been in consumer products industry for 15 years.
Wendy Chong is Ling's former colleague of 4 years turn Best Friends Forever (BFF) from her days working at Chjimes. Wendy's background is 22 years from the Restaurant scene in the F&B industry.