A place where many classic moments to the students and professors studied or worked at the National Taiwan University (NTU) in the mid and late 2000s.
The RUFOUS Coffee Roaster was opened by the young, 192cm tall, passionate Yang Jr. and his wife together on the No.333 Fuxing South Road Section 2 in 2007. Located literally at the north side of the NTU campus. Back to those good old days, there was very limited quality coffee roasters around focusing in drip coffee, and too, able to deliver a variety of different origins. So naturally, this's the best crib for the NTU students to study or doing their projects during a recess between classes. Inside the 12Sqft space, the store was decorated with used coffee burlap bags labeled with their origins hanging on the wall. On the ceiling, a series of water pipe structured thru for connecting the electric cables to every drop-down light, and too, their name - RUFOUS, in which set up an industrial chic. Since the footprint of the store was relatively small, the customers sitting on the bar tended to yield out a passage if others wanna walk thru. The lighting was dim bc daylight was only able to come thru the front door's tinted glasses, very sentimentality. To articulate the store a more spacey sense, a wall made out of mirrors hung with personal paintings was on the other side clearly reflecting every detail of the coffee bar. On the bar top and wall shelf mounted behind the bar, there were hundreds of coffee essentials in different shapes and sizes, empty coffee cans from different countries and poster cards sent back by customers fr everywhere in worldwide, and furthermore, the espresso machine. In the dark corner, at the back side of the store, it's Yang Jr.'s little helper, the petite roasting machine produced those aroma flavored coffee beans with his unique recipes. At the storefront, 5 chairs were lining up for the waiting line of customers outside and a Coffee Taster's Flavor Wheel wallpaper fixed on the entrance's sidewall. Both Yangs doesn't like to socialize or talk much but spent most of their time delicately pouring a good cup of coffee to every customer. Enjoying a cup of drip coffee poured by Yang's was a luxury experience, and that was my good, old memory before they moved a couple hundred steps to their current location, "No.339", in 2014.
The Yang's tried hard to retain the original exterior and interior design, from the door panel at the entrance to the bar top, to the seating, but just not the same anymore. The store now has a patio on the left side for customers who enjoy the sunlight or want a puff of cigarettes. With the see-thru glasses and non-tinted glass front door, the entire store becomes bright in lighting and switched over to a different personality. Without the water-pipes on the ceiling, the distinctive rustiness and the vintage feeling of the store has completely vanished. Furthermore, more staffing and wider walking space disrupted the tranquility and intimacy between customers and baristas, where the spirtual beauty of the origin store design. Everything's inside too uncluttered, and created tensity for the customers. The relationship between customers and the store is now simply a business tranaction, but no more.
Their business is about as good as the past, but my memory of the RUFOUS didn't get preserved.
Ref:
1. Original Location: http://leosheng.tw/2014-10-18-40/
New Location
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