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DNO - In the heart of Da Nang, Vietnam, there is a café that feels less like a business and more like a time machine. It's the Noi Coffee.
With 4 branches across the city, the venue invites visitors to step into the past through objects that carry nearly a century of history.
The idea was born from Nguyen Ngoc Truong, an architect by profession but a collector at heart.
Growing up in a family with nothing but determination, his childhood was shaped by modest surroundings: earthen houses, clay bowls, and the single black-and-white television that drew an entire neighborhood together.
Decades later, Truong began seeking out those very objects, from cassette players and sewing machines to relics of wartime, determined to preserve the stories embedded within them.
Walking into Noi Coffee is like opening an old family album. Each cup, bowl, or utensil, carefully placed, seems to whisper of decades past.
What makes Noi unique is not a selective nostalgia for beauty, but an embrace of memory in its entirety.
Even difficult times - poverty, hardship, loss - are acknowledged, not with sorrow but with tenderness. As Truong puts it: “Every memory, beautiful or painful, deserves to endure.”
Beyond its décor, Noi Coffee has become a cultural hub. Visitors can find art exhibitions showcasing local painters, photo collections celebrating Son Tra, ballet workshops, and performances of both music and contemporary dance.
The slogan “Old houses, old vehicles, old music” captures not just an aesthetic, but a philosophy: to weave the past seamlessly into the present.
For foreign visitors, many of them are moved by the authenticity of objects that speak volumes about Vietnam’s social and cultural history.
Guided by Truong’s storytelling, they gain insights into the daily life of previous generations.