Hard Work, Ice Cream

Not a piece of cake for young F&B entrepreneurs

Charles Tan, 28, the owner of FatCat Ice Cream Bar, who gave up his Parisian culinary dreams to FatCat. (PHOTO: VIVIAN ONG)

Located at a humble and quiet spot under a HDB block in Bedok, FatCat Ice Cream Bar’s dim lights and décor are sure to leave you feeling warm and cozy.

FatCat is reaching its fifth year of opening on January 1, 2020 and currently sees about an average of 100 customers in a day. The ice cream bar was opened by 2 siblings, Charles Tan, 28, and Tan Yingqi, 30. It is a feat for them to have sustained their cafe business this long.

Data from Singapore’s Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority shows that amongst 391 cafes that registered in 2014, close to a quarter brought down its shutters within a year.

It was his hard work that explained why FatCat has managed to sustain through the years. “I believe worries [on sustaining the company] is an understatement already, there’s definitely a lot of worries… The constant pressure is there. Market people are always saying that the market is bad,” said Charles.

In order to last long in the industry, Charles believes that one must be able to make wise and timely decisions. He continued with an example of launching seasonal menus. Charles has quite the strategy when it comes to menus. He believes that the menu should be out at least one and a half month before. “If I do it just one week, [it] would not have time and impact. So, it would not be effective,” he mentioned.

In 2014, a study by the Singapore Productivity Centre (SPC) referred that one of the top two challenges of opening a business is the manpower shortage. In order to avoid the labour crunch, Charles is constantly looking for staff despite having a sufficient team. Moreover, he provides chances for the staff to further hone their skills.

“The freedom given by Charles to explore new recipes was a great opportunity. Not only does it promote self-interest and creativity through testing out those concepts/techniques you are passionate about but it also has the option to make it to the menu as a full fledged dish,” said Ammer Matter, 28, an ex-chef at FatCat.

FatCat is constantly coming up with quirky ice cream flavours such as hay and honey, and butter beer. Their famous salted-egg yolk sauce is often paired with the trendy charcoal waffle. (PHOTO: VIVIAN ONG)

To Charles, the biggest challenge would be adaptability. Keeping up with consumers’ ever-changing perception and the need to stay 'fresh', Charles constantly comes up with new menu every quarterly. He told Temasek Polytechnic that he and his team personally travelled to the Kochi prefecture to “meet with one of the best yuzu farmers”. The produce is used for one of his creations, the yuzu sorbet.

He also works with the Shizuoka and Okinawa prefecture for the matcha and Orion beer respectively. “Generally after a few tastings, you will see a general trend of 20 per cent increase in the patrons,” said Charles. FatCat will be having an upcoming collaboration with Kronenbourg, a French beer. When asked what aspects resulted to FatCat’s success, Tan Yingqi, FatCat’s co-owner and sister of Charles, said, “constant creations to keep customers interested, staying relevant. Be up to date with industry trends”.

However, Charles’ journey to opening FatCat was far from a bed of roses. Charles was trained as a savoury chef and even had a job opportunity to work at Le Chateaubriand, Paris. He returned to his roots by launching now-defunct Stray, a fine-dining restaurant featuring Chinese cuisine. It was closed after nearly two years of operation.

Enquiring about his plans to venture back into fine-dining, Charles sat up and adjusted himself in his seat. He jokingly declined being filmed but went on admitting, “...when you’re talking about running a full-fledged restaurant, then my experience [is] still far from that. It’s definitely not my strength even though I’m doing some still.”

Now, Charles focuses on high profile events such as the launch of the Lexus LS and ES series, and even Formula 1.

Charles believes finding one’s unique selling point is necessary. He is the first chef in Singapore to open an ice-cream shop with plated desserts. FatCat started the charcoal waffle wave and even brought back the salted-egg yolk trend by creating a unique sauce. Matter said that the willingness to sell innovative flavours over traditional ones contributed to FatCat’s success.

“So I think the key word here is focus, you can’t be a jack of all trades.” - Charles Tan

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/a712f5_8d184c7f96cf4d74ad545b2ee0a74f77/1080p/mp4/file.mp4