水也上居 手作米工坊 - Rice house serves all kinds of rice-based dishes, hand-made rice bread using rice flour for burgers, a tasty coffee and desserts. This is located at Zhonghua Road near Chishang Art Village. In general, the closing time for most of the shops in Chishang is between 6 and 8 in the evening, but this shop allows a customer to stay as late as 10 in the evening. It is considered a tourist-friendly shop since its menus are translated in English. In addition, one of the owners can communicate in English as well. 水也上居 手作米工坊 - Rice house is owned by Awen and Ed. They have been running this restaurant for a year now.
Before getting into a restaurant business, they both had their own career path. Awen used to work as a movie advertising animated music score. Whereas Ed used to work as a fruit picker and packager in New Zealand. When he went back to Taiwan, he started his journey in travel agency and worked as travel lead for 4 and a half years.
Awen and Ed met through Awen’s friend when Awen was looking for a travel guide/travel lead. They went to Europe together and got to know each other more. Then they both learned that there are many things that they have in common. They both like music and travel very much. And that was how the strong bond started. Awen moved to Taipei, and they rented in the same apartment. When Ed’s brother bought a house in Tamsui, they thought about opening a shop. However, due to the high expense of rental fee, they decided not to pursue it.
Meanwhile, Ed’s father did not like the idea of his son working in a travel agency since his profession is not related to it. That pushed Ed to quit his job and go back to Chishang, his hometown.
It was one day when Awen visited Zhe in Chishang. During Awen’s stay at Ed’s house, Ed’s dad came up with an idea of opening a restaurant at his auntie’s place. It is just beside their house, and it used to be a grocery store before.
Both Awen and Zhe considered the plan while being aware that they need an expense for that. Hence, they decided to sell a rice toast in Mr. Brown Boulevard. Suprisingly, tourists liked their dish which also resulted to attract a lot of tourists as potential customers. Due to that, they were able to earn money. They used it to travel abroad, then they came back to open their restaurant. That is how they started as business partners.
They were thinking about the concept of their shop and realized that the first time they came here gave them an idea as this place was like a ghost town because it isn’t surrounded by many people. Also, the restaurant/shops close so early which resulted to having a hard time to buy food around the area. Due to this situation, they decided to prolong their closing time as they know that there are some people like them who are looking for food at a late time. And so, their customers can stay longer.
Because Chishang is well-known to its rice product, they came up with an idea of using the rice as a main ingredient in their menu. Moreover, they believed that both of them had to learn, so they exchanged work and study. They even went abroad to study and master their delicacies.
On the other hand, Awen’s family asked him why he did not continue his profession and changed his career path to business. He explained that he did not quit his profession. He told them that it just became his passion. This is because he can still play and connect himself to music while simultaneously giving himself an opportunity to travel. He finds it fulfilling.
They are more dedicated to how they can give their customers a way of comfortable stay in their shop since they want to make their customers feel that their shop is not only for coffee and foods, but also a place where they can enjoy their leisure time. They never thought about the income that they’ll received from here because for them, they want to become a way of people’s conveniency.
The location of their restaurant is not that easy to find, but through positive reviews of their customers, they were able to gain more customers. Chishang has a small population, and tourists are not so many. This is the main reason why most restaurants and shops here close so early. They run this restaurant slowly and they are planning to have a hostel someday. But now, their purpose is to create light for others. They value people more than money. They wanted to become different from other restaurants which could not offer conveniency to people, wherein people can feel at home, somewhat a place called 水也上居 手作米工坊 - Rice house.
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