The burden (& joy) to be good
First, you need to contend with the distance.
You get out of Orchard Road MRT station. Ask for direction for the Thai Embassy. You then go past it. You may get distracted by the bars outside the infamous Orchard Tower. Well, don’t. Just keep going. Finally you reach Tanglin Road. Keep walking. Forget the array of alluring shops and restaurants at the opposite side of the road. Now here is Nassim Hill road (on your right) that leads to the enclave of rich and powerful folks of Singapore. Ok moving on.
And suddenly there it is. An open air deco-looks-like-is-inspired-by-a-spa-from-Bali watering hole tucked at the end of the road. If you get disappointed and want to venture beyond, you will find that there is really nothing more to see. Unless you need to visit a hospital or try a jog around Botanic garden.
You can of course arrive in a car or Uber there. But that would have defeated its purpose. After all, it is meant to be the comfort joint for you to chill out. Cool people walk to discover cool places. They do not create unnecessary carbon.
The New Rasa Singapura (www). Because there was actually an old one.
It is not about the Food
We are not going to talk about the food. You can get the food at Newton Circle, Tiong Bahru market, or from the legion of hawker stalls around the island. Sure there are twists and turns which they try to inject into the menu. Sure they experiment with new ingredients (they all taste great of course). Sure the beer is cheap and good.
Anyway, everybody has been talking about the makan.
We want to talk about the cheerleaders.
“I was looking to have my own place to drink, and at the same time do something good.” — Chan Hock Eng
Unfortunately (sorry to disappoint some of you, guys), this is no Hooters and none of them dons hot pants. They are quite jovial though, and maybe a couple of them might share jokes with you.
These cheerleaders are the behind-the-scene sort. So you have to try hard to catch them.
Why would you want to own an eatery? After all, it is one of the most competitive businesses in the world. Anyone can get into the business and there is no secret sauce behind it. Ok there is secret sauce. But anyone can create her secret sauce in a kitchen.
Most of the cheerleaders said they want to have their own place where they can drink and bring their friends along. (Aha! If you want to pay for drinks, you rather pay yourselves!). These are successful people. The doctor, lawyer, power executive types. (Actually I have no clue. I don’t dare ask because one of them insisted on paying for my dinner).
Of course the clouds clear when Josephine and hubby KC Ng talked. The cheerleaders are cheering for this couple. That’s the reason they put money into NRS (Please go figure out what NRS means. Some people say it is good that we try all the time to keep our brain active. On the other hand, if you think this is way too easy for you, just move on).
KC Ng apparently does not like media exposure. Yep. He is not in the photograph above. What a sly guy. I can come up with two reasons. He is either very rich (and does not wish to be kidnapped) or he owns somebody a huge sum of money and does not wish to be found. Ok this is just a joke. KC does not joke much. In fact he looked me earnestly in the eyes, brandished his arm and reminded me, “It is for the elderly, and for the physically disabled and mental guys who are recovering”. He said this three times to make sure I remembered these three categories of employees.
Sam Heng (looks like the banker sort, the aura is all over him, although I did not peer at his forehead too closely) reminded Josephine to tell me that the almighty Marina Bay Sands hotel employs only six“disadvantaged” persons. 6. S.I.X. How many staff does MBS employ? 20k? 15K? Say 10k. That’s 0.06%.
New Rasa Singapura also hires six. They have (I looked around) maybe ten staff for the night shift. Assuming two shifts, its Social Employee Ratio (SER — we just invented it this minute) is 30%!
Make Them Productive
Josephine, or Jo, owner, operator, winner of President’s Challenge Social Enterprise Award, Catholic, bubbly, converses easily in English and Mandarin, with a voice getting hoarse from talking to everybody about NRS, having sunk in $1m in her other business to keep it going, St Nicholas girl (maybe one of those that we used to ogle as we go home from school during the Victoria Street days), said it is all about being inclusive.
“I just want to be able to help another group of people. My first one is to help women learn seamstress skills. This one we can reach out to a larger group and make them productive by giving them simple jobs”.
Which to me is a *&%^ing difficult and expensive thing to do. Some of these guys cannot walk. Some of them are mentally “a little slow”. You need to redesign the backend to accommodate their limitation. And then you need to motivate and encourage them to contribute.
In the meantime, there is rent to pay, utility bills to deal with, food and ingredients to buy, staff salaries to remit.
“Our head chef, Tan Cheong Gan, has more than 20 years of experience. He worked in Melbourne, Hong Kong, Malaysia.”
Translation: Good guys do not come cheap. 😅
Sustaining Good Work
Another cheerleader, David Tan, owns another F&B business for 10 years.
“F&B is already a very challenging business. We need to constantly keep it fresh and exciting. I am happy to be involved because I see the good work [Jo and KC are doing].”
“We are all living on borrowed time” — Jo Ng
When it comes to managing her shareholders/cheerleaders, Jo was nonplussed when she explained the expected ROI, “I told them please do not expect any money back.”
Ok so we can flush all that MBA theory down the drain. And since we are already here at NRS, let’s down a couple of beer too. But before we all get drunk, I would really like to know this: How could you guys sustain this? How to keep it going? Yes the intention is noble and supreme and fantastic but at the end of the day you would need to be able to continue to pay the the “disadvantaged” so that they take back income, to take care of their own family. Look, some of the cheerleaders even aspire for bigger things: that you will be able to expand and become two or three or more, and then you can employ more people and help more people in similar situations.
“We just have to keep talking. Tell people about it. Let more people know. Companies can come here to fulfil their CSR. Your friends can come here to eat and drink and at the same time know that they are helping somebody. People can host their events here. We just need to continue to create awareness about this place.”
I am looking at Jo, talking incessantly, her hoarse voice getting worse, noticing that earlier she was moving tables for 3 customers that came in for a drink, knowing that when her hubby and she sold their first business they could have chosen a life of luxury and relaxation. Instead she is sitting in front of me stressing over the need to let more people know about NRS, and she will then go on and work till about 10pm, and in the morning she will wake up at 7am to continue whatever other things that she needs to do.
Why?
“Because we are all living on borrowed time. So we should give something back. Make the world a better place. The world should be a nicer place. Because life is not about yourself.” This is the first time I detected heaviness in her voice. This is her burden. Her joy. Her baby.
I am satisfied. Not just from the yummy rendang and roti prata. I am satisfied to have discovered her burden. Her passion. And that makes it worthwhile for anyone to take that 10 minutes walk from Orchard MRT station to the joint, to have a chat with Jo. To see for yourself her baby. Her burden. Her joy.
She is probably there every night whenever NRS is open, till 10pm.
New Rasa Singapura, 56 Tanglin Road, B1–02 Tanglin Post Office Singapore 247964, (opposite Tanglin Mall), is operated by Jo and KC Ng.
Opening hours: 12noon-10pm. Closed Sundays and public holidays.
Reservation: (+65) 9818–8102 (phone or whatsapp)
