HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — The Vietnamese are masters of cafe universe.

With many citizens making about US$100 a month, there’s little incentive to work harder than you have to, and that leaves plenty of time for coffee and smoking in cafes.

Many cafes, therefore, are immaculate homes away from home, playing relaxing eclectic music mixes, serving up ice-cold free green tea, and surrounding its clientele with lush vegetation and often, waterfalls. They do what looks to be very good business as a result.

What could cafes and restaurants in China learn from these environs?

Plenty.

1. Tasteful ambience matters. The Vietnamese seem to understand the art of subtlety. A place need not be golden to connote class. A white wooden lawn chair placed on a slate of black rock could look far classier than a red throne atop a red carpet. The latter might work at the Forbidden City, but elsewhere, it’s just silly.

2. Real service matters. In the current café in which I’m perched, there isn’t a nearby electrical outlet for plugging in my laptop. A waiter noticed this and fetched an extension cord so I could remain atop a cozy couch instead of having to move. If I were in China, a dozen attendants might be nearby, all urging me to get up and move somewhere where there’s an electrical outlet.

3. The view is in the eyes of the restaurant beholder. It’s hard to find a café or restaurant in Beijing with a scenic view outside of Hou Hai. Some of the classier establishments place a row of green bushes outside the place, which offers some semblance of vegetation but – more typically – just blocks an ugly street view. There’s nothing beautiful about the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, but café proprietors here are a lot more original. They turn their buildings into castles, build big waterfalls, grow trees, use neon lighting or employ other methods to make Ho Chi Minh City a romantic place. Granted, the weather here is more conducive to courting vegetation. But you’d think Beijing’s sandstorms might provide for a few more beach-like cafes.

4. Bathrooms in Vietnamese establishments are - if not hip – clean. They never smell like urine, the floors usually are dry (and therefore, not suggestive that urine pools are collecting), and I’ve even spotted a few with modern art. In China, if a bathroom has something more sit-able that a squatter, it’s ahead of the competition. Attention Chinese food and beverage managers: do not underestimate a good pot. It leaves a lasting impression.

5. Despite the rumblings of motorbikes outside, cafes are more peaceful in Ho Chi Minh City. That’s partly due to culture, as people seem to speak more softly here and don’t get drunk so obviously. When there are drunks, they are dealt with swiftly. Our researcher Kim Nguyen notes that they are hauled off by security, sometimes with their obnoxious mouths covered. Chinese restaurants overlook public drunks, leaving it to friends – often loud and drunk themselves - to haul off alcoholic offenders. This may be acceptable in Chinese culture, but the rest of the world – including Vietnam – scorns such practices. International caliber establishments in China should begin to follow this worldly trend of removing drunks from premises swiftly, in the name of civility.

6. Drinks are better in Ho Chi Minh City. From coffee to juices, they just are. Vietnam has a lot of homegrown fruit from which to make juice, but I’ve seen too many fruits at Chinese hypermarkets to allow such an obvious mistake pass without pointing the finger at China. Shame on you. Learn how to make a decent fruit juice, and better coffee.

In many ways Vietnam still is a step down the development chain from China. GDP was US$70 billion in 2007 compared to US$3.6 trillion in China. Manufacturers – with labor costs rising in China – also look at Vietnam as a potentially lower-cost alternative.

But cafes are a higher-class ordeal in Vietnam than in many parts of China. China’s food-and-beverage businesses could learn a lot from their neighbors to the south.

    Channel: Local Wisdom     |