GEORGE TOWN, June 29 — The Mugshot Café on the busy thoroughfare of Chulia Street, right smack in the middle of George Town, is liked by both locals and tourists.

Just a stone’s throw away are some of the street eats that define Penang, yet this little café that only serves bagels, yoghurt and coffee has been packing them in since it opened a little more than a year ago.

The chief minister of Penang Lim Guan Eng is a fan of the café and has been known to introduce friends to the place.

The duo behind Mugshot are childhood friends who decided to take the plunge and open something together after talking about it for years.

Interestingly, Jesse Tan Soon Jin and N. Tristan — both 35 — found that putting their idea into action was probably the best thing they had done so far.

Mugshot, with its eclectic furniture and feature wall reminescent of the one on police shows where those who are charged get their mugshots taken, is very popular with Instagrammers as well.

Here, they talk about their respective journeys in the years leading to the opening of Mugshot and their take on the success of their café.

In their own words:

• Jesse: Baking was something I stumbled upon because all those years ago, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I merely wanted to make my own bread and from there, my interest grew and I discovered that baking suited me very well.

(Jesse and his twin brother opened Rainforest Bakery which adjoins Mugshot. Jesse still does the baking in the bakery today.)

• Tristan: I was a science stream student with a love for maths and physics and I wanted to be an engineer but after a field trip to a factory where I saw the working environment, I realised I can’t work in such a place.
• Jesse: Tristan and I became friends at seven years old, we were classmates at St Xaviers Institution and we were also room-mates when studying in the UK.
• Tristan: I started in the F&B industry when I was working part-time at Segafredo here many years ago and I realised I love working in the industry so I went to the UK to study hospitality management.
• Jesse: Tristan has been in the F&B industry for many years and it’s always been an idea in the back of our minds for many, many years to start something in F&B together.
• Tristan: My parents always taught me to love what I do regardless of the size of the paycheck so when I wanted to go into the F&B industry, they were supportive and they told me that I need to do what I feel best doing.
• Jesse: When we started Mugshot, we did not have much money, so we did everything ourselves from making the tables to painting the interior and we never imagined it would grow to become what it is now. Our initial plan was just me and him running this café.

(Today, they have seven staff members and are also providing opportunities for other young people interested in F&B by going into partnerships with them eg. the juice station at the back of Mugshot.)

• Tristan: The new cafés coming up everywhere will definitely affect us somehow but I’m confident in what we do and that’s why Jesse and I will continue to do our parts... and if we are confident in our own work,  then it will not be a problem. What we need is just confidence in what we do.
• Jesse: We try to create opportunities for the young team coming on board with us in hopes they can grow so that we all can grow together. There is a bright future for F&B and we hope to inspire or help the few talented ones to get into what they do best so that we can do it together.
• Tristan: Mugshot will remain as the one and only independent café for us. There’s always plans for another café but it will be a different concept, it could be something else. It will take time for us to plan it out though.