Hawker Stall Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak To Close For 2nd Time In 2 Years After Coffeeshop Shutters

“My company was acquired by our competitor last May. My sales accounts were reshuffled after the acquisition and my salary was affected quite significantly,” he told 8days.sg in an earlier interview. Not wanting to go through another similar career upheaval, the avid home cook started his own food stall called Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak instead.

As it was difficult to hire manpower for a hawker stall, Ken also roped in his wife Sofie, 37, who left her job as an accountant at an interior design firm to help her husband. The couple split the work, with Sofie taking customers’ orders and Ken cooking.

Started at a quiet French Road kopitiam

In 2021, they set up their stall at a coffeeshop along French Road. The footfall was low, but Ken was able to draw a decent crowd with his mod nasi lemak that came with newfangled add-ons like sio bak, sambal petai and bacon-wrapped enoki mushrooms.

In April last year, his landlord decided to shut down the entire kopitiam. “There were too many empty stalls in that coffeeshop,” noted Ken, who had been operating there for only seven months.

He later found another stall which made the French Road kopitiam closure a “blessing in disguise”. The Tiong Bahru unit at Seng Poh Road was famous for being the location of the popular Loo’s Hainanese Curry Rice, which was moving across the road to Tiong Bahru Market. Ken promptly snapped the stall up.

His business boomed at the new spot, with long queues and sales that were “easily two to three times better than at French Road”.

Tiong Bahru coffeeshop closing

Unfortunately, Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak has to move out again this June, as their current coffeeshop is also closing. “I don’t know whether to say we are… (laughs)” Ken, at a loss for words, told 8days.sg. Like his previous French Road location, his landlord had also decided not to continue operating. The kopitiam’s last day of business is slated for Jun 27.

This means that the three tenanted food stalls, including Ken’s nasi lemak joint, the popular Sixties Teochew Traditional Bak Chor Mee and Zai Heng Vegetarian will all have to find new homes.

“This coffeeshop has been around for decades. Instead of cooking at individual stalls, we do our main cooking at a separate kitchen behind. And the gate is the retro green metal kind which you have to pull. A lot of people like to come here for that old-school feel,” shared Ken.

Future plans for Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak

As the closure news was “so abrupt”, Ken has not found a new location to move to. He plans to end his Tiong Bahru operations at the end of June. “I have not discussed this with my wife yet, but it may be on the same date [as the coffeeshop’s closure on Jun 27],” he said. He plans to take two weeks off in July so that his wife Sofie, who is originally from Hong Kong, could visit her parents.

But he is still monitoring the situation to figure out his next move. “Moving to a new location is not easy, I need to find the right place and rent,” he explained.

Ken noted that after companies started lifting WFH arrangements late last year, his business has taken a hit. “F&B has been very quiet for the past year. People started travelling. When I first opened here in April last year, it was still pretty crowded because everyone was still WFH, but the whole area is pretty quiet now that everyone went back to the office,” he said.

Challenges of being a hawker

One of the most “demoralising” factors for Ken is the rising food costs. He shared: “Prices increased by so much. Oil, eggs, chicken wings, drumsticks. The supplier would call and say ‘next batch the price will be different’.” But Ken absorbed the price increase for ingredients as he reckoned: “It’s not nice for us to keep increasing prices, so we have to absorb the new costs. It is quite demoralising as a hawker.”

“Sometimes I feel, is this all worth it?”

While Ken reckoned that he was “most likely” to reopen his stall once he finds the right location, he is also having a dilemma about whether to continue in the F&B business or return to corporate life. Despite “earning better pay in corporate”, Ken gets a sense of achievement from building a regular customer base who enjoy his nasi lemak.

“Even though you don’t earn a lot, you feel appreciated when some customers keep coming back. All these things make me think, maybe I should continue even though it is not easy,” shared Ken, who has three kids.

But he added: “Long term-wise, if you don’t earn enough money, that sense of achievement is not enough. Sometimes I feel, is this all worth it? I set up this business with the intention to make it successful and pass it on to my future generations. That’s my dilemma.”

Mr & Mrs Nasi Lemak will operate till circa Jun 27 at #01-49 71 Seng Poh Rd, S160071. Tel: 9383-5689. Open weekdays except Thu 8am–2pm; weekends 8.30am–2pm. Closed alternate Sundays. For updates on relocation, follow them on Facebook and Instagram.

Photos: Alvin Teo