Orchard Towers is best known for its seedy reputation along the Singapore’s iconic shopping belt — so it’s pretty surprising to hear about Bean & Butter Cafe’s existence in the building that some dub the “four floors of whores”; a specialty coffee joint is probably one of the last things I would expect to be in this building anyway.

Apart from light bites and specialty coffee, Bean & Butter Cafe also serves up proper food such as sandwiches and waffles — items on the menu includes a smoked salmon sandwich, a crab roll, as well as several assorted home bakes that include muffins, basque burnt cheesecake and Ondeh Ondeh Madeleines amongst others.

Dropped by during the early morning on a weekend with plans already made for lunch — being the Canele lover I am there was absolutely no doubt that I found myself ordering the Pandan Kaya Canele when I spotted it sitting in the display chiller. Had mine warmed up upon order; the Canele here does also seem to carry a bit of an Ondeh-Ondeh infusion — whilst the Canele lacked that caramel-y crusted exterior and felt generally more cake-y in texture, it does come with a dollop of Kaya over the top, and a layer of desiccated coconut that is seemingly drenched in Gula Melaka near the bottom.

The folks behind Bean & Butter seemed to have been through quite a bit considering how the cafe was opened around two months ago — being situated at a spot that one would least expect to find a cafe at, not to mention having to have gone through dine-in restrictions as a result of the safety measures introduced in line with Phase 2 (Heightened Alert). They seem to know their coffee well, and are pretty hospitable — ready to share more about the process behind their cold brew coffee; a rare spot in town that coffee lovers will likely be able to appreciate. Will this be the start of a new era for Orchard Towers? Only time will be able to tell …