Four Singapore eateries going against the odds

SINGAPORE — Joel Ong was on the verge of bankruptcy a month ago. The 27-year-old chef and owner of Rochor Thai, a down-to-earth and affordable Thai bistro, was informed that the restaurant had to vacate its premises in Joo Chiat by the end of May. The landlord had sold the shophouse and the new owner had other plans for the building.

Ong made the announcement on Rochor Thai’s Facebook page on May 19 that the restaurant was closing after two-and-a-half years. After three weeks, he received 14 offers of help. The bulk of them came from F&B companies and individuals who wanted to invest, although there were also offers to buy out his chefs. Ong, who had taken a bank loan to start the business, is now in the process of finalising the details of his new partnership.

STUBBORNNESS CAN PAY OFF

Rochor Thai is not the only F&B player that has managed to find a niche in Singapore’s almost over-saturated and hyper-competitive food scene, where rents are a killer, manpower shortages run rampant and customers are notoriously finicky. Other small players have made their mark and are thinking of going big. But what keeps Ong and his fellow F&B owners going — and even expanding?

For Ong, it’s sticking to his guns, which could be his mantra. He was a jaded musician who had signed up for culinary school and was serving a one-year attachment at Resorts World Sentosa. During that time, he visited Thailand almost 20 times whenever he had time off, to try the food and learn about the culture. He finally decided to bring the wealth of flavours Central Thai cuisine offered back to Singapore.

“Most of the Thai eateries in Singapore serve cuisine from the north-east, which is just spicy and sour, period,” he said. “That’s why I never liked Thai food — until I went to Thailand at the age of 23 and realised what I was having was very different from Thai food in Singapore.”

Offerings on the Rochor Thai menu include green papaya salad with sauce and salted duck egg; wok-fried cabbage with fish sauce; and grilled pork collar. It’s not your usual green curry or tom yum soup and central Thai cuisine leans towards stronger flavours that are more multidimensional, said Ong.

All the sauces and pastes are made from scratch and no MSG is used. Even cha yen, or Thai iced tea, is sourced directly from a family-owned plantation in Chantaburi, three hours from Bangkok. “In Singapore, most people use one popular brand of tea, but I personally don’t like its taste. My tea costs 40 per cent more (than others’), but the flavour is better,” said Ong.

Still, it wasn’t smooth sailing: Not everyone was a fan at first. While Rochor Thai quickly found a following, particularly among working executives in their 20s and 30s, there were also those who found the flavours too intense. The tussle between Ong the chef and Ong the businessman began: He could “dilute” the flavours and appeal to a larger audience or stick to his original plan. The tenacity paid off when Rochor Thai was awarded the Thai Select Award, a recognition of authenticity the Royal Thai Government grants to restaurants from around the world. (Rochor Thai is one of six recipients in Singapore.)

Ong acknowledged that the relatively lower rent of Rochor Thai’s previous Joo Chiat location (at about S$6,000 per month) and simple decor allowed him to “be a bit stubborn in terms of the quality of the food”. “The only thing that brings people back is the food,” he said.

And it has paid off: Ong can’t wait to reintroduce the new Rochor Thai to the public and targets to reopen by August. “We cannot keep our customers waiting for too long.”

SERVICE BEYOND A SMILE

Over at Brawn & Brains, owners Xavier Tan, 39, and Gwen Peh, 32, are sometimes approached by regular customers who just want to say hi. Located at the old Singapore Badminton Hall, the cafe opened in August 2013 and at a cosy 355 sq ft, it is often packed. And not only with hipsters: You’re equally likely to find shorts-clad patrons sauntering over from the indoor climbing gym, yoga babes from the neighbouring studio, cyclists making a caffeine pit stop and residents from the neighbourhood.

For Jun Lau, a 38-year-old service designer who drops by often, Brawn & Brains offers more than just an aromatic brew — she enjoys the intimacy the owners have with their customers. “Gwen really tries to know the customers as friends. My children come here for the sweets and they call her Auntie Gwen. The feeling here is really like that of a local kopitiam.”

Peh recalled with a laugh how her staff once remarked that Brawn & Brains was like a community centre because “everybody knows everybody”. “Some of our customers come here and make friends, some run into friends they’ve not seen for 10 years, some bump into their first boyfriends,” said Peh. “I can’t describe the feeling, but it’s amazing to be part of something like that.”

It’s no surprise then that Brawn & Brains is now expanding within the compound (and yes, fans have been hounding the owners about when the new space will be ready.)

They said the cafe would move into its new 1,025 sq ft unit at the front of the building in the middle of next month. Tan admitted that it’s not the conventional way to run a business, but “we were taking so long (with the renovation) because we want things to be done right”.

Take the flooring. They ended up stripping off close to 40cm of old flooring and tiles, and levelling it with 18 bags of sand because parts of it were tilted. “It’s not a sound investment to do something so costly because our lease is less than three years, but I had to do it because I want things to be done right. I wouldn’t have felt good sitting in that environment,” said Tan.

“At the end of the day, we just want to make people feel comfortable and serve honest coffee that our customers like. It’s very straightforward.”

Meanwhile, in Bedok North Ave 3, just off the bustling central, another cafe reopened last month in a space double its original. Percolate has seen a steady stream of customers since it opened in March last year. Currently, more than 80 per cent of its customers are regulars, which makes its three owners — Avin Tan, 28; Vincent Ng, 28; and Shane Glynn, 40 — very pleased.

Said Tan: “We set out to promote a coffee culture and establish a coffee community. We wanted speciality coffee to be something that’s easily approachable and not a luxury, but more of a daily ritual.”

Percolate’s coffee beans come from local outfits Papa Palheta and Nylon Coffee Roasters. That the trio do their best to ensure the coffee is delicious goes without saying. What they really pride themselves in is their openness to talk about coffee. Tan said: “I’m all for explaining in great detail where our coffee comes from and how we make them. You can come to talk to me and ask me anything about coffee.”

And if you just want to have a good cup of joe without the talk, the team is happy to serve recommended brews without fuss. With such a strong base of regulars, they were worried about whether customers would like the new space, or find it too big or commercialised. But at the same time, the owners felt obliged to provide a better space.

“As much as we loved the cosy ambience and atmosphere of the previous smaller space, people sometimes felt rushed and obliged to finish quickly and give up their seats,” said Tan. “We think that if you were to enjoy something, you shouldn’t be rushed.”

Ultimately, the team hopes to create the perfect experience. Tan reasoned: “There’s no point in me making you a really good cup of coffee, but provide horrible service or serve it in a horrible environment. Customers drink and enjoy the food with all their senses. So what we deliver is warm and friendly customer experience along with quality coffee.”

THINKING OUT OF THE BOX

In the heartlands of Bishan (specifically Block 505D along Street 11), the second outlet of Grin Affair, the dessert store best known for its jar cakes, opened its doors in February. In addition to its signature “jar cakes” — cakes packed in cute glass jars — the new outlet also offers meringue waffles. Made with egg white and soya milk, the waffles are crispier and lighter than conventional ones, not to mention healthier. Jody Ang, the 25-year-old behind the dessert store, said: “One thing about food is that I want it to be healthy so I can keep eating it. If it’s unhealthy, you feel guilty each time you have it, as it’s not good for you.”

She started Grin Affair in 2011 while trying to figure out what she wanted to study in university. Over two years, she tried all sorts of jobs, from motivational speaker and bartender to scuba-diving teacher. During her free time, she indulged in dessert making.

Noting that food packaging was wasteful, she came up with the idea of selling cakes in glass jars (they’re also recyclable or reusable). With money saved from her jobs, she first opened Grin Affair at Everton Park. By the following year, thanks to attention from bloggers and mainstream media, the jar cakes were selling so quickly that she could not meet the demand. On one occasion, everything in the store was wiped out within half an hour of opening.

With no formal training in pastry making — something she is interested to pursue some day — Ang’s ingenuity is rooted in her curiosity. “I like to question why things must be done a certain way, and to try out new things. It keeps me going,” she said.

Rather candidly, she reckoned the peak of the store’s success was back in 2012. Still, the fact that Grin Affair has lasted and evolved into a business also involving her mother, two older brothers and eight employees signifies that they must be doing something right.

Ang has since gone back to school and is in her second year at Singapore Management University, studying business and social science. Yet she remains hands-on in the business and continues to come up with new desserts, such as the soon-to-be-launched waffles in a jar, which involve delectable layers of meringue waffle, gelato, brownie and cookies in their signature glass jars. Like everything else in Grin Affair’s desserts, right down to the caramel, all the elements are homemade.