Magazine Rd Cafe insists you have your daily dose of colours, good food

With a name like Watercolour Bakery & Cafe, one would expect to see fine pieces of watercolour drawings and paintings in the midst. Instead, you get a fine cafe with great bread and juices in a tastefully restored George Town heritage shophouse near Komtar.

The name of the shop refers to the palette of colours found in their freshly squeezed fruit juice offering.

Cafe co-founder Jay Tung says the colours are a reminder to its patrons that they should have all sorts of colours in their foods and also their drinks.

“When you combine orange, pineapple, carrot and pumpkin, you ultimately get shades of orange. When colours and water mix, and that is, watercolour,” he said.

Tung and partners started as a small juice bar in 2010 at Pusat Bandar Damansara (which now demolished and rebuilt into a commercial area) in KL. That outlet specialised in juice drinks, too.

“We carried the name with us when we expanded the business to Mont Kiara as we thought it is rather unique and quirky. So we thought why not bring that to Penang,” he told Hyperlocal recently.

Tung also added that from the early days of their food joint, the focus was always on patrons having a balanced breakfast and meals that followed.

“Breakfast such as scrambled eggs with toast/croissant, muesli, bagels, pastries and sandwiches are our main staple.

“Along the way, we also started serving hot meals like soups, rice bowls and pasta bowls. Of course all these goes along with coffee, tea and juices. We also sell a range of European breads,” he said.

Tung also believes in making food items in-house other than items you can’t make in house. He said their bread, for instance, go through a 16-hour long fermentation process and is handmade. Sauces such as pesto and teriyaki as made from scratch, too.

Tung said moving to Penang, especially in the centre of George Town was a totally different scenario from the rather suburbian Mont Kiara in KL. He said patrons in that part of town are usually familiar faces but in Penang, it was vastly different.

He said the response from Penangites have been good and feels there is an opportunity to grow in the state.

Watercolour serves small pastries such as pain au chocolat, almond croissant, multiseed croissant, wholemeal sourdough, scones, sandwiches, pesto chicken with avocado, wild mushroom toast and soup.

The Watercolour Bakery & Cafe is located along Magazine Road (just three doors away from St Giles Hotel) in George Town. For reservations call 04-371-3655.