The Cafe Apartment

This guide to The Cafe Apartment in Ho Chi Minh City traces a nine-story block built in the mid-1960s for government officials and American advisors, its later decades housing shipyard families after 1975, and its slide into neglect once rents downtown began to soar. You'll hear how, around 2015, entrepreneurs priced out of glossier neighborhoods started renting single apartments and turning them into small cafes. It follows what happened once the street outside became a pedestrian walkway and photos of the balconies began spreading online. Ride the stairwell slowly and notice how each floor still feels like someone's old living room.