Meet The People Behind Jimmy Monkey – Caféfest 2014 Feature

About Jimmy Monkey Café

Jimmy Monkey is an Australian-style concept cafe, located amidst the unique 200-hectares development of One North Condominium. The true blue Melburnian owner of Jimmy Monkey Café brought his hometown’s cafe experience to Singapore – communal casual dining with decor that’s raw and deconstructed, yet always elegant. 

In Jimmy Monkey Café, your caffeine fix is hand-picked from some of the best independent and Rainforest Alliance farms, and ground by Singapore’s very first Slayer Espresso Machine. We speak to owner Michael Ryan to find out more.

Interview with Jimmy Monkey Café’s owner, Michael Ryan.

TSL: Congrats on your 3rd birthday! Why did you first decide to open Jimmy Monkey?

Michael: When I first arrived in Singapore, I went hunting for coffee and I couldn’t find what i was looking for – espresso coffee. I could find a lot of kopi and teh, but I couldn’t find Western-style espresso-based coffee. What I did find did not impress me and I was literally like, “I will find you. I will do something about it!” I really hoped I could share part of my experience and my expertise and my culture of café experience from home, especially coffee, with Singapore. 

When I first arrived, there was a big disparity between local and affordable coffee shops, and the hotel kind of dining experience. There is nothing in the middle – something free of the constraints of conformity. I just want to share a good thing that I love. Coffee has always been something I grew up with and was passionately involved in. I have been in the Food & Beverage industry for 22 years. It was cultural to me – it’s a daily lifestyle for me. 

Not finding good coffee was something that triggered in me, something I had to add to my ‘To-do-list’ quickly, very quickly, and in a casual and cosy way. Nothing pretentious, not the big-scale franchise model. Something approachable and attractive. 

TSL: Where did the name Jimmy Monkey come from?

Michael: I first arrived in Singapore in 1980, with Jimmy and my family. We came here on a holiday. 

He points to a toy monkey sitting on a rack.

That’s Jimmy the monkey. Jimmy Monkey is my childhood toy monkey. I had him for 36 years and that means I am also 36. I was 3 years old at the time and did nothing but sleep, eat, and spend time with my family and Jimmy. This was part of my life and I naturally brought it along on a holiday, as a keepsake.

I left Jimmy behind in a hotel in Singapore. For me it was gone for good. My life then revolved around my mom, food and Jimmy Monkey. So a third of my life kind of died – but the hotel staff found Jimmy, put him in a box and sent him back to me in Australia. Jimmy did not want to leave Singapore, so I brought him back. 

TSL: What’s the biggest challenge being in this industry?

Michael: I face obstacles daily. It’s not easy to open a café or any business for that matter because it costs a lot of money. Making sure I had enough money to execute a business was tough. I didn’t do it alone though. I had some partners and supporters with me – family and friends that came on board. They helped me achieve what you see today. 

The largest obstacle is myself. I think it is believing that I can actually do it. Trusting what your gut tells you. I cannot explain – it’s kind of like love. How do you explain love? I get along with them very well, we can talk until we fall asleep and we are like mirror images of each other, or complete opposites. How do you explain that? Very hard. So it’s like love. 

For me it was something I knew I wanted to do, I just had to achieve that – believing in myself. But that belief was very hard to secure and to make sure I was complete in my commitment to execute this. It wasn’t a simple thing like – he breaks into pseudo-Singlish – “Okay lah, here lah, 200 hundred thousand dollar.” Not so easy, even if you had that money. And I didn’t. 

The largest obstacle will be believing in yourself. Then you still have to take the first step. You can believe all your life, you can think all you want, but you have to actually say ‘I am going to do this” and until you do it, it’s not going anywhere. Action is the first point you take. It’s a daily thing, believing that I have done a good job. Now I have taken action, I have to continue with motivation -motivating yourself when there is no one else to turn to. 

TSL: There are so many cafés sprouting up everywhere lately. What do you think sets Jimmy Monkey apart from others?

Michael: We are all about the experience. It’s not just the coffee and it’s not just the food, even though they are very strong components of what we do here. It is the combination of the atmosphere and the sense of experience you get here. The culture that we have instilled in our team isn’t simply, “yes Ma’am, no Ma’am, what would you like” and walking away. There’s more depth to the approach. It’s not the hipster kind, it’s not trying to be pretentious and “oh, I know all about coffee so I don’t want to talk to you” or “I am going to tell you all about coffee because it is fascinating.” It’s about looking for the right experience that everyone can truly connect to and enjoy. 

It’s not about what I want. You have to stop and listen to what your public wants in your product and anticipating their needs as much as you can. Experience here is the real energy invested into their food and I must say, our coffee as well. We are also keen to listen to how we can do better and keep it very transparent. Everyone has opinions – we just have to listen and not be defensive about it. 

TSL: Why did you decide to participate in Café Fest?

Michael: I’ve been desperate to do my own festival for a long time, so it was just a matter of time. When I first heard about it, I was like, “YES! YES! Go do it!” Café Fest is a very easy thing for me. I’ve experienced them back home. They are very successful, very interesting, very fun, very engaging – pulling people together and bringing the public awareness to the nature of coffee as a beverage away from franchise businesses. It’s like bringing different people and like-minded businesses together and sharing this experience. 

TSL: What can attendees of Café Fest expect from Jimmy Monkey? 

Michael: Very, very tasty coffee. Haven’t yet decided exactly what food we are going to pair with our coffee. 

I am bringing in a very good Group 2 Slayer coffee machine, which is being custom-built as we speak, to the festival. It is sure to be the best machine in the show. I would say, arguably, it’s the best espresso machine on the market. It allows the control of temperature, pressure and independent management of the group handles. I am going to bring this very sexy machine to the show and please everyone. 

TSL: Having been in Singapore for quite some time now, what’s your favourite thing about this country?

Michael: Wow. I am crazy about delicious food, so I’m in the perfect place. There’s such great depth, variety and cultural diversity in the food here. 

I connect perfectly with people here. I moved to Asia in 1999, and went to live in Japan for some time. I connect with that experience very strongly, it was so easy for me, like breathing. It felt natural. I saw my life in Australia getting closer and closer to Asia. And I had the foresight that I wanted to live in Singapore. Singapore is a melting pot of three very distinct cultural backgrounds, as well as very user-friendly to westerners. Not that I needed that since my most difficult cultural experience was in Japan. 

I wanted to jump into the fire, a place I could connect to greater Asia but also other parts of Southeast Asia and revisiting that original experience in Singapore. My very close friends and family are all Singaporeans here and I am a PR. I am very happy to be here and I have no plans to be anywhere but here. Singapore is my home. 

TSL: Can you share some tips with our readers on how they can recognize a cup of well-made coffee? 

Michael: Very simple. Does it taste good? If the answer is yes, then that is a good cup of coffee.

TSL: But humidity is one thing that coffee beans are vulnerable to. How do you overcome that? 

Michael: Yes, coffee beans are susceptible to degradation by heat, light and moisture. You are suffering all the risks of the negative impacts on coffee in Singapore. Humidity is detrimental to coffee. The challenge is an ongoing pursuit of chasing the perfect espresso and it starts from the handpicked beans that we import, as well as their flavours. 

Is the origin from a sustainable source or a farm that respects regrowth? Are the farmers treated well? Could I buy the same bag of beans the next year? The farmers are the start – without them we do not have coffee. Full stop. The search for the right plantation, processing, picking techniques, transportation, the grades of the beans, correct level of roasting, blending – whether it is 2 or 5 beans that is needed to suit your finish, it’s in the hands of the businesses to produce the right cup of coffee. The right grinder, right hands and the right machine. 

TSL’s Rapid-Fire Questions

TSL: If you had to eat one local food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Michael: Don’t you dare ask me that question – there are too many choices! Nasi Lemak. I bloody love Nasi Lemak. 

TSL: If you could go back in time, what would you tell your 15 year old self?

Michael: Believe in yourself.

TSL: Fill in the blank: if you weren’t running Jimmy Monkey, you’d be ____?

Michael: There’s too many things I would be and do. An astronaut. I would be a teacher. 

TSL: If you could teleport to any place in the world right now, where would it be?

Michael: Punggol Nasi Lemak. Okay, right now, I would probably want to be teleported to Kyoto. Kyoto really connected very strongly to me.

TSL: If you had to tattoo a quote on your body, what would it be?

Michael: I don’t do stupid quotes on my body. But if you forced me to do a quote on my body, it would be Furinkazan. It means, “may your rapidity be that of the wind, your silence that of the forest, raiding and plundering be like fire, be immovable like a mountain’. It’s pretty good and profound yes?

Getting to Jimmy Monkey Café

Address: 9 One-North Gateway, #01-51 One-North Residences, Singapore 138643
Contact: 6777 8470
Website: www.jimmymonkey.com 
Opening Hours: 8.30am – 8.30pm (Monday to Friday), 8.30am – 6pm (Weekends) 

Café Fest

Jimmy Monkey is one of the 12 cafés participating in the 2014 Café Fest. For more information on Café Fest, visit their official Facebook page.

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This post is part of TSL’s pro-bono coverage for the upcoming Cafe Fest where we decided to help put the spotlight on cafe culture in Singapore.