Happy Days at the Sun Ray Cafe!

There is nothing more lovely than enjoying a freshly made coffee with your pet by your side, which is why plenty of locals simply adore the Sun Ray Cafe! Pets are more than welcome, with customised tasty treats available on the menu for them and delicious human food and coffee for owners or pet sitters visiting with their furry clients. 

We have a chat with Dave about all things Sun Ray and get to know a little about the behind-the-scenes action of this cosy cafe. 

1) Firstly - can you introduce yourself and your role at the Sun Ray Cafe? 

I am the barista at the cafe and behind-the-scenes I strategise for the cafe, including product range, branding, costing, sourcing and recruitment. Being a certified barista and roaster, I also roast the coffee beans for the cafe.  

2) We love that your cafe is pet-friendly! Can you tell us a little about the cafe and why you decided to allow pets?

We have been in business for 6 years, operating at the same location.  We were a finalist in Epicurean Star Award 2013 and 2014 organised by the Restaurant Association of Singapore.  In 2016, we were the Best Cafe in Food Mania Award organised by Weekender.  

We are all pet lovers. In fact, 3 shops down the road is a pet grooming shop. We hope to provide good food for owners and pets in our pet-friendly outlet.

To minimise risks of food poisoning for fur kids, our human dishes do not contain ingredients that are toxic to fur kids. For example, we only use roasted cashew nuts and all our dishes or burgers do not contain raw onion, grapes, currants or cherries.  This is in case these ingredients are accidentally dropped on the floor and ingested by the ever-hungry fur kids.  When we serve apple to fur kids, they are cut in stripes and never in whole or chunks so that they won't ingest the toxic seeds.  The only 2 types of food we serve that is toxic to fur kids (but enormously delicious to humans) is chocolate, in the form of brownies, lava cake and ice creams, and sauteed mushrooms in our All Day Brunch menu.  However, we are sure there will be nothing left of the chocolate desserts to give the fur kids a chance :)  Furthermore, these desserts are sticky and not so likely to be dropped on the floor unnoticed.  The same goes for the mushrooms.  We do have a warning on the menu to remind all guests.

3) What kind of treats can furry guests enjoy? 

We cook all food for fur kids in house, using human grade ingredients.  In fact, the same ingredients are used in the human menu.  We serve bento set, consisting of a meat of choice, fresh boiled veg, fruits, rice and scrambled eggs. We also have chicken balls, salmon cheese roll and beef pie, served with fresh vegetables and sweet potato.  We also bake fruits and meat muffins and cakes.

4) What is the most popular treat for furry guests? 

Bento set and salmon cheese roll.

5) Do you have any pets yourself?

Yes. All adopted and are mongrels.

6) Any plans for the future of the Sun Ray Cafe?

Business environment is tough and economy is bad.  We have linked up with Pet Lover's Centre to do a promotion to their members.  We have 1 for 1 main course for weekday lunch as well.  We just hope people continue to support us.  Please check our Facebook page or Instagram for more details.

There you have it Pawshakers! Be sure to get along to the Sun Ray Cafe next time you have a meet and greet with your pet sitter, or if you're sitting a dog and want to get-to-know each other over puppacinos :-)