To be honest, the news of a cafe opening has kind of bothered us. Another place for yuppies to gather and eat microwaved food? Thanks but no thanks. Avocado..on…toast…with…eggs? We’re still living in a recession, hello? But here is the beauty of The Brewing Ground aka the latest one to liven up the East Coast. It’s located in the old Telok Kurau Primary School (!), its food is non-pretentious Eruopean-inspired fare (!!) and it’s shaded by a majestic Kapok tree (!!!) — one of the latest remaining heritage ones of its kind that is over 80 years old.
Here, we speak to co-founders of Joshua Wee & Leonard Tham of why that Grab ride there this weekend is all worth it.
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Holy! How did all of you get the green light to operate in the old Telok Kurau Primary School? Is there an interesting story to tell?
We were looking at venues and our agent came back to us with this space. When we first saw it, we instantly knew we had to try what we can to get the space. The area was very quaint, serene (albeit deserted!) and we knew right away that it is a diamond in the rough.
We have viewed about five other venues but nothing spoke to us as much as this space. So, we put in an offer and drew up a proposal for the landlord to submit to the relevant government agencies like SLA for approval. This happened in July last year, at the start of Phase 2. In September, the landlord replied with the approved change of use.
The rest is history and the space became The Brewing Ground that you see today. We are very thankful for the overwhelming support we had so far.
Fun fact: When we first took over the space, it was literally a training shed that housed vending machines where parents used to wait around for their kids to end their enrichment classes.
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East Coast = best coast: what do you think The Brewing Ground brings to the cafe culture of the east?
The east side of Singapore is already so awesome. Or maybe we are just biased since we are living in the east [laughs]! But we knew that the east will be a good location even though there were already so many cafes around.
As parents, we are constantly on a look out for places where we can have great time with yummy food, and at the same time, where our kids can play and enjoy themselves. There is a nice outdoor alfresco area that are also pets-friendly as well as ample parking spaces near the cafe. Our parents can come here to dine without having to worry about entertaining their grandchildren. These kids sure know how to keep themselves occupied.
When we built The Brewing Ground, the vision we had for space was to create a haven for friends and families to come together over good brew and good food.
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Why a European-inspired menu for The Brewing Ground?
We agree that the brunch scene we have in Singapore is already of very high standards.
With the current travel restrictions, we want to bring our customers to different places through our food and sincerely hope that we have done a decently good job so far.
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Our philosophy is pretty simple. We try to use the best ingredients that we can source. We also wanted to be slightly different from others in terms of our offerings, together with our chef’s experience in European cuisine, hence we felt it was the best fit.
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What is your favourite dish at The Brewing Ground and is there an interesting story to tell?
Mmmm… Our Breakfast Burger!
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The dish comprises of all the favourite things that we grew up with and loved eating as a kid (still loving it by the way) — soft fluffy scramble eggs, tasty juicy sausage patties, golden crispy hashbrown, all stacked between two soft toasty buns.
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How are The Brewing Ground’s seasonal specials crafted?
Playing up to our philosophy for our food. We try to work with what is in the season and try to cook something that brings out the best of every single ingredients we put on the plate. We also work very closely with our suppliers to bring in whatever is at its freshest and in season.
Sneak peak of some seasonal items that we love to work with are, white asparagus, Bouchot mussels, and only the freshest wild caught fishes. We will only have very limited portions daily so that we maintain its freshness & quality
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How fresh are the produce used? Are they local?
Sticking to our philosophy, we try to use the freshest ingredients available to us. Like fishes or seafood that were caught just a few hours ago, soft cheese like burrata that’s flown in twice a week from Italy only upon request with only a week’s shelf life.
We do try to work with local producers as much as possible, for example our pastries & burger buns are made by a local boutique bakery, run by a local who is very passionate in his craft. These items arrive to us fresh just hours after they are out of the oven, sometimes its still warm!
As for our eggs, we work with a local agriculture specialist called Chews Eggs who are the only few farms that raise & rear eggs locally.
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Can you give us a little hint about the dinner menu at The Brewing Ground?
It is going to be an exciting 180 degrees change from what we serve during the day. Not sure about you, but we don’t really like to eat brunch food during dinner.
One hint that we are going to give — imagine your proteins cooked in our INKA (oven fuelled by charcoal, no gas and electricity used). As mentioned above, fresh & seasonal specials that we only have very limited portions daily, think grilled whole fish, grilled whole squid, seafood stew or even a large tomahawk steak!
We are very looking forward to launch our dinner menu and we hope that we will be able to get your continued support. Show us some love, ok?
Once you’re done reading this story about The Brewing Ground, click here to chope a seat and here to catch up with our February 2021 issue.
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