“My entrance into the F&B industry was an unexpected one,” says 40-year-old Abel Tan. His career was in chartered accountancy — he has been in the industry for 16 years and opened his own accounting firm in 2015, which he still runs, serving mainly SMEs.
Early last year, Abel took over the reins from the previous owner of 36-year-old zi char restaurant Miki Snacks in Katong Shopping Centre after they decided to close down — rebranding it to Happy Wok — he says this is “in order to save the staff from losing their jobs”. He could not retain the Miki name as the previous owner had trademarked it.
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1/131/13A chartered accountant with a passion for F&B -
2/132/13Used his savings to ‘save’ the team -
3/133/13Circuit breaker “a disaster” -
4/134/13An enterprising spirit -
5/135/13Started writing letters to customers out of gratitude -
6/136/13Letter of gratitude -
7/137/13The menu -
8/138/13Curry Fish Head, $28 (8 DAYS Pick!) -
9/139/13Salted Egg Calamari, $15 (8 DAYS Pick!) -
10/1310/13Butter Lobster, $25 for two (400g total) -
11/1311/13Mapo Tofu, $12 -
12/1312/13Spicy Garlic Wings, $12 for eight pcs; $22 for 24 -
13/1313/13Bottom line