17 June 2007, ST
And it comes from the New Singapore Hawkers who are serving restaurant fare at hawker centre prices
By Brenda Goh
WALK into Golden Mile Food Centre and besides the usual wonton noodles and chicken rice, you can also order Belgian chocolate fondue and Japanese katsu don.
Over at Maxwell Food Centre, there is a stall selling French-inspired cuisine.
And if you are craving something sweet, head over to Shunfu Mart and get muffins from Chocolat 'N' Spice.
These stalls are changing the landscape of hawker centres here by selling French food, pasta, authentic German sausages and even more exotic fare like crocodile fillet steak.
LifeStyle found at least 17 such hawkers islandwide. And they stand out from the chicken rice auntie or char kway teow uncle.
These New Singapore Hawkers have websites and mailing lists and issue loyalty cards to keep customers coming back. Some even monitor food blogs to see what others are saying about them - and tweak their businesses accordingly.
What most of them have in common is this shrewd business strategy: Start small, sell cheap, get the masses hooked on their food, then expand.
The testing ground for their food concepts is the ubiquitous hawker centre, where thousands of Singaporeans go every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Mr James Tan, 43, who sells pasta at his stall - Mien by First Pasta - in Bukit Timah Food Centre, puts it this way: 'My philosophy here is not to make a fast buck. Rather it's to keep my prices low so that I can cater to the masses.'
Most of those interviewed say they are attracted by the low rents for hawker stalls. These range from $700 a month at Beauty World to $2,000 a month at Maxwell Food Centre, and allow them to make their forays into the food business without having to contend with monthly shop rents in the region of $20,000 in the Central Business District.
Mr Alex Wong, 45, a stall assistant in Mansaku, a stall in Golden Mile Food Centre which sells Japanese food, says doing business from a hawker stall makes good business sense.
He says: 'It's less costly and there's less competition.'
Most of the stallholders interviewed charge more for their food than regular hawker stalls. But at $1.80 for a serving of tiramisu at Benny in Maxwell Food Centre to $10 for a Texas sirloin steak from The Bigrill in a Yishun coffee shop, the prices are still attractive enough to lure the office crowd and budget-conscious students hoping for restaurant or cafe-type meals that are easy on their wallets.
Of course, not just any hawker centre will do.
Most of these new-style hawkers flock to bustling Maxwell and Golden Mile food centres.
Pasta seller Tan says: 'The human traffic in Bukit Timah Food Centre is tremendous. As long as you hit 1 per cent of the 1,000 customers that walk in, you would have served a lot of customers.'
The business strategy has paid off for many of the hawkers LifeStyle interviewed.
At least 10 of them say they are looking to expand, either by opening cafes and restaurants or franchising their businesses.
'Many of my customers have told me that they want me to open a restaurant,' says Ms Serene Lee, 40, who co-owns Japanese stall Hachi Tei in China Square Food Centre with her husband.
She adds: 'But we want to find a place with cheaper rental so that we can still offer affordable food.'
One stall that has made the leap is Chocolat 'N' Spice, which opened in 2002 in Shunfu Mart, a market and food centre in the Thomson area.
It became so successful - people would line up for its muffins and chicken pies - that the three sisters who run it decided to open a bakery in Tanjong Pagar Complex three years ago.
Ms Mary Chan, 29, one of the co-owners, says: 'We wanted to cater to more people, like those who live and work in town.'
Though the rent for their shop is 21/2 times higher than at the food centre, the sisters say they have not increased their prices.
Others, like Mr Benny Wee, 33, who manages Benny, has even set up a business that trains aspiring new-style hawkers to set up their own stalls.
Fees start at $168 for workshops, and he teaches people how to set up a food business and how to market their stalls. Fees for commercial cooking classes start at $4,000.
He says he has trained about 400 people since he started three years ago.
But for some, being different can sometimes be a challenge.
Some stalls, like three-month-old Sweet Stone Parad'Ice at Golden Mile, which sells Belgian waffles and fondue, are a success from day one. The two entrepreneurs - Mr Sebastien Lhode, 27, and Mr James Lee, 32 - say they have been profitable since the day they opened.
Others, like Mien's Mr Tan, only made $19 on the day he opened his pasta shop in Golden Mile Food Centre in 2000. He built up a regular customer base over time and now serves 150 to 300 customers a day at Bukit Timah Food Centre.
To attract customers more used to ordering the usual hawker fare, these new-style hawkers put up flashy banners, hand out flyers, offer special deals and go online.
Sfigato Pizza in KPT Kopitiam in Bukit Merah has its own website (http://sfigato.101cookies.com/), to tell customers about new menu items. Others like Ms Wendy Chin, 44, of Wham!burger in China Square, trawl Internet forums to find out about their customers' preferences. For example, Ms Chin extended her opening hours after a customer said he wished that they were longer.
Sweet Stone Parad'Ice even began a loyalty programme two months ago, where customers can accumulate points to earn free ice cream or waffles. It has given out 8,140 loyalty cards so far.
But with or without the gimmicks, customers are loving the cheap and good food.
Businesswoman Jasmine Chia, 29, was buying a mini sausage in an onion bun from German sausage stall Erich's Wuerstelstand in Trengganu Street when LifeStyle visited.
She says: 'The sausage tastes as good as the one I had in Germany. It's weird that the stall is located here but I would come back.'
IT consultant Kevin Tan, 29, who was eating a cheesy beef dish at Benny for the first time, says: 'It's something special and it's a good trend to have such food at the hawker centre. The food's not bad too, though it's not yet restaurant standard.'
And it comes from the New Singapore Hawkers who are serving restaurant fare at hawker centre prices
By Brenda Goh
WALK into Golden Mile Food Centre and besides the usual wonton noodles and chicken rice, you can also order Belgian chocolate fondue and Japanese katsu don.
Over at Maxwell Food Centre, there is a stall selling French-inspired cuisine.
And if you are craving something sweet, head over to Shunfu Mart and get muffins from Chocolat 'N' Spice.
These stalls are changing the landscape of hawker centres here by selling French food, pasta, authentic German sausages and even more exotic fare like crocodile fillet steak.
LifeStyle found at least 17 such hawkers islandwide. And they stand out from the chicken rice auntie or char kway teow uncle.
These New Singapore Hawkers have websites and mailing lists and issue loyalty cards to keep customers coming back. Some even monitor food blogs to see what others are saying about them - and tweak their businesses accordingly.
What most of them have in common is this shrewd business strategy: Start small, sell cheap, get the masses hooked on their food, then expand.
The testing ground for their food concepts is the ubiquitous hawker centre, where thousands of Singaporeans go every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Mr James Tan, 43, who sells pasta at his stall - Mien by First Pasta - in Bukit Timah Food Centre, puts it this way: 'My philosophy here is not to make a fast buck. Rather it's to keep my prices low so that I can cater to the masses.'
Most of those interviewed say they are attracted by the low rents for hawker stalls. These range from $700 a month at Beauty World to $2,000 a month at Maxwell Food Centre, and allow them to make their forays into the food business without having to contend with monthly shop rents in the region of $20,000 in the Central Business District.
Mr Alex Wong, 45, a stall assistant in Mansaku, a stall in Golden Mile Food Centre which sells Japanese food, says doing business from a hawker stall makes good business sense.
He says: 'It's less costly and there's less competition.'
Most of the stallholders interviewed charge more for their food than regular hawker stalls. But at $1.80 for a serving of tiramisu at Benny in Maxwell Food Centre to $10 for a Texas sirloin steak from The Bigrill in a Yishun coffee shop, the prices are still attractive enough to lure the office crowd and budget-conscious students hoping for restaurant or cafe-type meals that are easy on their wallets.
Of course, not just any hawker centre will do.
Most of these new-style hawkers flock to bustling Maxwell and Golden Mile food centres.
Pasta seller Tan says: 'The human traffic in Bukit Timah Food Centre is tremendous. As long as you hit 1 per cent of the 1,000 customers that walk in, you would have served a lot of customers.'
The business strategy has paid off for many of the hawkers LifeStyle interviewed.
At least 10 of them say they are looking to expand, either by opening cafes and restaurants or franchising their businesses.
'Many of my customers have told me that they want me to open a restaurant,' says Ms Serene Lee, 40, who co-owns Japanese stall Hachi Tei in China Square Food Centre with her husband.
She adds: 'But we want to find a place with cheaper rental so that we can still offer affordable food.'
One stall that has made the leap is Chocolat 'N' Spice, which opened in 2002 in Shunfu Mart, a market and food centre in the Thomson area.
It became so successful - people would line up for its muffins and chicken pies - that the three sisters who run it decided to open a bakery in Tanjong Pagar Complex three years ago.
Ms Mary Chan, 29, one of the co-owners, says: 'We wanted to cater to more people, like those who live and work in town.'
Though the rent for their shop is 21/2 times higher than at the food centre, the sisters say they have not increased their prices.
Others, like Mr Benny Wee, 33, who manages Benny, has even set up a business that trains aspiring new-style hawkers to set up their own stalls.
Fees start at $168 for workshops, and he teaches people how to set up a food business and how to market their stalls. Fees for commercial cooking classes start at $4,000.
He says he has trained about 400 people since he started three years ago.
But for some, being different can sometimes be a challenge.
Some stalls, like three-month-old Sweet Stone Parad'Ice at Golden Mile, which sells Belgian waffles and fondue, are a success from day one. The two entrepreneurs - Mr Sebastien Lhode, 27, and Mr James Lee, 32 - say they have been profitable since the day they opened.
Others, like Mien's Mr Tan, only made $19 on the day he opened his pasta shop in Golden Mile Food Centre in 2000. He built up a regular customer base over time and now serves 150 to 300 customers a day at Bukit Timah Food Centre.
To attract customers more used to ordering the usual hawker fare, these new-style hawkers put up flashy banners, hand out flyers, offer special deals and go online.
Sfigato Pizza in KPT Kopitiam in Bukit Merah has its own website (http://sfigato.101cookies.com/), to tell customers about new menu items. Others like Ms Wendy Chin, 44, of Wham!burger in China Square, trawl Internet forums to find out about their customers' preferences. For example, Ms Chin extended her opening hours after a customer said he wished that they were longer.
Sweet Stone Parad'Ice even began a loyalty programme two months ago, where customers can accumulate points to earn free ice cream or waffles. It has given out 8,140 loyalty cards so far.
But with or without the gimmicks, customers are loving the cheap and good food.
Businesswoman Jasmine Chia, 29, was buying a mini sausage in an onion bun from German sausage stall Erich's Wuerstelstand in Trengganu Street when LifeStyle visited.
She says: 'The sausage tastes as good as the one I had in Germany. It's weird that the stall is located here but I would come back.'
IT consultant Kevin Tan, 29, who was eating a cheesy beef dish at Benny for the first time, says: 'It's something special and it's a good trend to have such food at the hawker centre. The food's not bad too, though it's not yet restaurant standard.'
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