A cafe
built on slow time
In early 2017, two friends — a photographer and a former barista — drove down Phetkasem Road with no plan beyond an idea: that there should be a place on the Cha-am coast where mornings are not rushed, the menu is not crowded, and the music is just loud enough to hear over the waves.
We rented a building with a wide blue awning, painted the walls the color of low tide, and opened with eleven menu items. Nothing has fundamentally changed since — only sharpened.
Eight years on, we are a team of twelve. Our coffee is still single-origin, still roasted weekly. Our breakfasts still feature whatever the morning fishermen drop off at the back door. Our regulars still order the same thing on Tuesdays.
A timeline
The doors opened
A small cafe with eleven menu items, twenty seats, and a hand-painted sign. We served thirty-four people on our first day. We remember every one of them.
The terrace was built
We added the outdoor terrace overlooking the beach road. It was supposed to seat twelve. On most evenings it seats twenty-five, depending on how friendly the crowd is.
The roastery, in the back
We installed a small roaster in the back room and started roasting our own beans. The smell of roasting coffee competes with the sea breeze; it's a fair fight.
Loyalty program · Live music
We started The Pier Loyalty, our coffee-card-meets-perks program. Friday night live jazz also began — a tradition we now can't imagine giving up.
Where we are now
A team of twelve, seventy-something menu items, and a quiet conviction that we are doing exactly the work we want to be doing. The next chapter is being written, slowly.
What we
care about
Four things hold steady, no matter how busy the season. They show up in every cup we pour and every plate we send out.
Slowness, on purpose
We don't push tables to turn over. If you sit for three hours with one filter coffee, you've understood the place.
Local before far
Ingredients walk in from down the road wherever possible. Fish, eggs, herbs, vegetables — same-day, same-coast.
One thing, well
We'd rather serve a small menu we believe in than a long menu we don't. Same with coffee. Same with playlists.
Quiet beats clever
Beautiful food doesn't need a flourish. Beautiful coffee doesn't need a story. We let the work speak softly.
Hire kind people
Skills can be taught. Warmth cannot. Our team is small for a reason — we work with people we want to work with.
Care for the coast
1% of every coffee sold goes to local beach cleanup. We pick up after ourselves; we pick up after others when needed.
“The seadoesn’t care if it’s a busy Tuesday. Neither, in our best moments, do we.”— Pim & Tao, founders
The people
Pim Charoenpong
Used to take photographs for living. Now takes them for fun and roasts beans for living. Lives ten minutes up the road.
Tao Sirisin
Trained at a small bistro in Chiang Mai. Believes that nothing on a brunch plate should fight with anything else on the plate.
Mai Suthep
National latte art finalist 2024. Drinks her espresso with two ice cubes — never anyone else's order, just hers.
Nat Pongpat
Five years at a wine bar in Bangkok. Came south for the salt air. Stayed for the slower customers.