Free The Robot

It started with Bitters & Love, a cocktail bar that operates at night. Coffee lovers and co-owners wanted to open a coffee shop and the idea of space-sharing made sense because of its central location. Free the Robot was to front the entire exterior of the shophouse.

The name “Free the Robot” wasn’t an overnight spark or quirkily coined over a brainstorm. It was one fine day, the nocturnal team came back with the intention to get coffee and observe the lunch time crowd along Telok Ayer street (find out interesting facts about the street below!). 11am, there was a stream of wandering tourists, nothing unusual. 12pm, it was like every office set off their fire alarm — lunch time. The term Corp-Bots (Corporate Robots) has been long used by us to describe our friends working in the CBD – it was the same time they clocked in to work, lunch, break, work, dinner, drinks, home – it was almost like a routine. At noon, it was just us casually in awe of the crowd and the phrase “Free the robot” just came out and we ended up using that as a name for our coffee shop. 2pm, everyone got sucked back into their work space ship and the streets quietened down again.

Eventually, Free the Robot became 2 meanings for us:
Free the Robot : A term that encourages us to break the routine, to do something different and be adventurous.
In other words, a gentle reminder to – live life.
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Free, the Robot : We gave the robot a name. His name is Free. He landed on Telok Ayer Street and made it his base to make and serve coffee to his fellow robot friends. He has made a new girl friend called Freebie and adopted a dog named Freeloader. On certain Fridays, he has TGIF day (Thank God its Free) – where he gives out free coffee or dessert or whatever he wants basically. He is quite spontaneous and likes to surprise himself and others amidst  daily routines.