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in 2010 as the headquarters of Canadia Bank, has already been surpassed in height by the
39-story Vattanac Capital Tower, built by the family-run Vattanac Bank. The city skyline,
once an undulating line of palm trees and golden spires, is now bisected everywhere by
modern high-rise towers, filled with office space and apartments.
The changes are just as visible at ground level. At a plush coffee shop on the city's
breezy riverside promenade, young middle-class Cambodians sip cappuccinos while
chatting on iPhones and tapping away at laptops. A cavernous interior, all dark hues and
exposed brick, echoes with the comforting sound of grinding coffee beans and hissing
steam. Cambodians have been caffeine addicts since French times, preferring their brew
rich, iced, and sweetened with dollops of condensed milk. But when it opened in 2009,
Brown Café and Bakery was something different from the city's street-side coffee shops.
It was Cambodia's answer to Starbucks—a Western-style chain, selling cakes and pastries
and elaborate caffeinated concoctions. Before Brown opened, the one or two modern cof-
fee shops in Phnom Penh were patronized mostly by expatriates. “I thought there was
a market for that, for good coffee and good ambience,” said Hok Kang, one of the four
young entrepreneurs behind Brown.
Kang and his partners hit upon the idea for Brown in early 2009. Two of them flew to
Bangkok to learn about baking and pastry-making, while Kang, an architect, scouted loc-
ations and sketched out a design for the first store, which opened on Sandech Pan Street,
near the Royal Palace. The 31-year old, who speaks in accent-less English, picked up
while studying at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri, said he wanted Brown's
stores to feel relaxed and slightly worn—a comfortable place for young people to meet
for lunch or spend a few hours working. The first outlet was an instant hit, and eight more
branches quickly followed. All have been a roaring success among an emerging middle
class willing to pay the same for a cappuccino—two or three dollars—as they would pay
in many Western countries. Following Brown's success, international chains have stam-
peded into the Cambodian market. In Boeung Keng Kang, Phnom Penh's leafy district of
NGO offices and expat bars, there are now coffee shops on literally every corner, includ-
ing leading chains from South Korea, Thailand, Australia, and the UK. Few of them are
ever empty.
To keep ahead of the competition, Brown has plans to open two more stores in the cap-
ital, and an additional outlet in Siem Reap. If the brand continues to take off, Kang hasn't
ruled out taking it abroad—to Vietnam, maybe, or Burma—which would be a remark-
able story for a homegrown chain. The four Brown partners, all aged between 28 and 31,
are part of a generation of young Cambodian entrepreneurs with the savvy and start-up
cash to take advantage of the opportunities of a booming economy. Kang, whose parents
founded ISI Steel, a leading producer of roof sheeting and steel pipes, said it took just
six months for Brown to move from sketchpad to reality. Four years on, the chain em-
