A Rip-Roaring success

It was on a breezy Friday evening that a new eatery on Singapore's Dempsey Road _ an exquisitely serene strip where a number of upmarket restaurants are located _ enjoyed a full house as it has done over the past four months since it was launched. A blackboard at the front displayed a long list of customers who had reserved a table for the night. And the dining room inside was pleasantly lively with local diners who came to take joy in food and booze amid entertaining live music.

Crispy pork knuckles, fried cabbages with fish sauce, stir-fried morning glory with shrimp paste and curried crab were seen on almost every table regardless of the fact that the price may be three times higher than at the restaurant's original branch. Beer, too, wasn't cheap. But customers seemed to be well aware that they were paying for the freshness of the drinks, the know-how of the in-house brewmaster and, perhaps, a ''foreign'' dining experience.

This is not a front page review of a newly opened restaurant in the Lion City. What you are about to read is a tale about another Thai company succeeding in the international restaurant arena _ a success that has generated more than S$600,000 (15 million baht) monthly income from one single outlet right from the first month it started.

Launched away from home for the first time, the 300-seat, S$3-million-invested Tawandang Microbrewery Singapore, officially opened in July 2009, can be regarded as the biggest Thai restaurant in Singapore. Its second outlet in East Coast Parkway, with a 350-seat capacity, is promised to be ready for service at the end of this month.

The brand Tawandang (meaning ''red sun'' in Thai) was established 10 years ago by Supote Teerawattanachai and his business partners including Sathien Setthasit, founder of the energy drink Karabao Daeng, as Thailand's first German microbrewery. With two outlets in Bangkok (the first on Rama 3 Road and the second on Praditmanutham Road), The two Tawandang in Bangkok, equipped with a wide variety of food and live entertainment and a floor-to-ceiling blackboard filled with customers' reservations as its trademark, have amazingly welcomed as many as 6,000 Thai and international diners a night, an interesting number of whom are Singaporeans.

''We have lots of customers from Singapore ordering our kha moo tord so they can hand-carry it on the plane. It is like a popular tradition among them to bring home Tawandang's deep-fried pork knuckle every time they come to Thailand. So we've seen a great business opportunity and decided to step forward,'' said managing director Supote Teerawattanachai.

Even so, to branch out the already known brand overseas wasn't as easy and predictable as many might have thought. Especially in this case, it was also proved that ''one formula for success'' doesn't fit all.

Usually, when Thai proprietors export Thai restaurants to the international market, the delicate, exquisite and graceful Thai ways of life, on top of the deliciously pungent Thai cuisine, are always their ''must-have'' selling points. But Supote and his team, without being completely against or acquiescent to the old fashion, decided to follow their own instincts and do what they do best _ pairing good German beer with great Thai food.

''Most Thai restaurants in Singapore don't have a strong concept or didn't have a clear determination at the start. Many of them are a result of Thai housewives who had nothing to do in their free time so they opened a restaurant, or Thai cooks who needed to break free from their Singaporean employers and build their own business,'' he said.

''At Tawandang we always stick to our strong concept of being Asia's leading microbrewery that serves authentic Thai cuisine. Our chefs are professionally trained and are all Thai. Our food is prepared to taste as authentic as possible. We've sought far and wide for the right materials to substitute some specific ingredients we cannot import from Thailand.

''For example, we spent month after month trying and testing pork knuckles and wasted a lot of money on the wrong cabbages. Finally, we have to import pork knuckles from Australia and came back to Thai cabbages. We have to offer our customers the same satisfactory experience they get from our restaurants in Bangkok.''

Supote also mentioned that to set up a brewery-style eatery is a lot more demanding than to build a restaurant. The core part of a brewery is the system: first you need a high-quality brewing pot, then you have to have great

brewmaster, a cool storage room and a good logistical system from storage to tapping.

"Just like how we often say that only Thais can prepare good, authentic Thai food, we strongly believe that only German brewmasters can make a beer to a German standard. So our beer is made by our German brewmaster who flies back and forth between our outlets in Bangkok and Singapore, and with ingredients from Germany."

Supote explained that expanding a business overseas is never as easy as opening a new joint in a shopping mall. All the elements, whether it be the business opportunity, location or the dining behaviour and lifestyle of the local people, have to support it.

"Singaporeans are different from Thais when it comes to dining out, that's another thing we have to gradually learn and adjust to. They don't like loud music and would move to another table if the music's too vigorous," he said.

"At the same time, they don't like to stay late. And if they drink they would drink in a very sedate manner. So we see our business as bringing an energetic, fun-filled version of contemporary Thai dining to our neighbour."

Yet it doesn't mean that the island republic's outlet doesn't feature Thai gentility. Upon arrival, we were greeted with accent-free "sawaddee krup" and "sawaddee kha" by local staff, who have been carefully trained to provide their customers with a Thai-style atmosphere and to effectively explain the menu.

Supote admitted that food, not booze or the entertainment, is the key to this success. While the volume of beer sold is sober, the Singapore restaurant shifts more than 2,000 pork knuckles each month, quite a close number compared to almost 5,000 at a Thai outlet.

From the approximately 100-item menu, other best-sellers are tom yum goong, stir-fried cabbages and curried crab, all made according to pungent Thai recipes.

"We have added some items that had been studied that the local people like," added Romtham Setthasit, the young managing director of the Singapore branch. "For example, Singaporeans believe that pineapple fried rice, which we Thais hardly eat, was one of our traditional dishes, and request it every time they come. So we had to put the dish on the list and it has quickly become among our top-10 best sellers.

"We have also learned that Singaporeans love sweets, especially Thai desserts. Some of them even order sweets before they have the main course. In Thailand sweets are never this popular," said Romtham.

Because of the success Tawandang on Dempsey Road - a location which is known as very challenging for new business proprietors due to fierce market competition and high rental costs - has shown to the locals, the company was offered to expand to a location at East Coast Parkway. The S$2-million-invested second Tawandang Microbrewery restaurant will be located in Singapore's famous seafood centre and will offer the brand's signature products in a more family-style ambience.

"Doing business in Singapore is very tough. Rules and regulations must be strictly followed and every single thing requires a licence. Coming to this point, where we were able to open another restaurant in less than half a year, has been very, very challenging," said Supote.

"But beyond the challenge is a great pride. We are very proud that we can introduce a Thai brand and get the approval in the foreign market and at the same time create jobs and incomes for Thai people over here.

"We considered Singapore as our international exam. If we pass this exam we're sure we can go anywhere in the world," Supote noted, adding that the company is considering Shanghai, Vietnam and Japan as its next targets.

Relate Search: Lion City, Tawandang Microbrewery Singapore, East Coast Parkway, Supote Teerawattanachai, Singapore's Dempsey Road