Who's afraid of the F&B business? PS Cafe founder Peter Teo makes a comeback
Called Chip Bee Bistro, the two concepts will occupy a total of just under 3,000 square feet across a pair of units at Jalan Merah Saga in Holland Village.
This follows recent news of planned closures by F&B establishments Wala Wala and Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao in the area.
'When I read all these articles about Holland Village, I'm like, 'maybe they know something we don't',' Teo told The Business Times in an exclusive interview. 'But it felt right to open there.'
PS Cafe's roots began in 1999, when Teo, Chin and Chamberlain added a cafe at the back of their Projectshop fashion boutique in Paragon. The trio grew PS Cafe into a chain of restaurants and added other brands including Anglo-Chinese concept Chopsuey Cafe and contemporary Japanese restaurant Jypsy.
They sold the last of their stake in parent company PSGourmet to investment firm Sun Venture in 2022. 'We'd already done 20-plus years of business then and felt it needed new blood and energy to take it to the next chapter,' Teo explained of their exit.
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Since then, he'd been spending time in New Zealand, while Chamberlain, a British citizen, had done likewise in London and Chin here with his foodie group.
After a year of 'not doing anything', Teo started feeling bored and got involved in a pie business in New Zealand, which he later sold off. He then decided to try distillation – something he was introduced to back when PS Cafe and Tanglin Distillery collaborated to create a gin called Verandah.
'The process of distillation is like art and science, and creating a range of spirits seemed like a nice idea because taste is discovery,' he said.
Last year, he partnered distiller, Philibert Gandy and Lee, PSGourmet's former group business director, to open Distillius, a distillery in Pandan Loop. Since the gin market is 'very saturated' and 'no one's really doing aperitifs or liqueurs in Singapore', they decided to create an amaro, a type of bittersweet liqueur. 'It's an equatorial aperitif, and it's got ginseng root, calamansi and torched ginger.'
They called it Arveau, which is a play on the Australian slang for afternoon (arvo) and French word for water (eau) – given that Gandy is French, Lee is Australian and the trio imagined it to be an 'afternoon kind of drink'.
The plan is to experiment with other spirits, liqueurs and syrups 'and see in the wild, how people respond'. That created a desire for a bar-cum-tasting room to showcase the products, which naturally led to the idea of doing it sustainably – that is, accompanied by food. And that's how Teo is again partnering Chin and Chamberlain, along with Lee, to open Chip Bee Bistro and the tasting room.
The bistro will be a casual eatery serving Western food that 'works well with a drink' – such as shared plates – have outdoor seating and be pet-friendly. 'It's a sort of Singaporean take on Aussie-inspired, Euro-leaning ideas, which could be many things because I never want to pigeonhole myself,' he said, adding that such neighbourhood cafes are common in New Zealand and Australia, and 'doing it our way might be a bit different and appealing'.
Given the state of the F&B industry and the fact that people are consuming less alcohol, would opening the two concepts now be the right move?
'Maybe I'm a bit crazy, but I've never really thought if this is a good time or location, but more like, 'does this feel right'?' said Teo. 'For me, if you can create something that's different, something that you like, hopefully you'll find like-minded people.'
Besides, he says that just like PS Cafe, his latest ventures are not part of a plan, but organically grown from diverse interests. Similarly, PS Cafes' locations in then undiscovered, quiet corners of Dempsey, Ann Siang Hill, East Coast Park and Raffles City, were also in unlikely places.
'I had no intention of going back into hospitality,' Teo admitted. 'But just creating an environment where people have a good time is actually very satisfying. Chip Bee Bistro will also be a place where my friends and I can hang out, just like we used to at PS Cafe.'
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