SINGAPORE — When you serve good food, the opportunities will come. Just ask owner-chef of Gastrosmiths, Dillon Ng. Ng first got his break to move out of Katong Shopping Centre when Gastrosmiths was then called The Humble Loaf, thanks to a regular customer who was keen to invest. After nearly two years at Beach Road, Gastrosmiths returns to the east at I12 Katong by way of a shared premise with furniture store HomesToLife.

“One of the owners of HomesToLife used to come to the old establishment and really liked the food,” said Ng simply, when asked how he got to know about the furniture brand.

HomesToLife senior manager of retail excellence Phua Bo Wen revealed that since customers appreciated having a cafe when HomesToLife functioned as a pop-up store at the mall in its previous incarnation last year, it made sense to have a cafe integrated within the space when the brand decided to expand and reopen as a permanent store.

“We approached Gastrosmiths as we loved their food and we saw it as a synergistic collaboration. Also, we made it a point to ensure that we kept the things that our customers loved, like great coffee and sweets,” said Phua.

Gastrosmiths and HomesToLife opened together last month and both Phua and Ng agreed that the cohabitation has been a happy one since moving in. Phua attributed that to both brands sharing similar brand values, such as wanting to provide customers with high quality products and a shopping and dining experience that is fun as well as full of discovery.

Feedback has been positive. “Customers like that they can do more with their time in a shared space, like browsing for furniture while waiting for food. Also, we have had a lot of crossover synergies between brands as we already had our individual clientele base. We find most of Gastrosmiths’ diners will come over to browse our products and our shoppers will take a look at the menu,” revealed Phua.

Of course, it does not hurt that a new place to chow is always a lure, especially among food-mad easties. “Word of mouth is crucially important for us in raising our brand awareness and we believe that having this crossover element helps us to differentiate the concepts from the rest,” said Phua.

Ng’s regulars enjoy the bigger space — seating capacity has gone up from 40 to about 60 — and Ng has even lowered prices. “As Gastrosmiths is now located in a mall and on the third floor, we want to attract more volume especially since we are not exactly at a prominent street level,” explained Ng.

He is also in the midst of changing the menu but assured that favourites such as the fisherman’s mee sua and Hokubee beef bowl will remain. “I’d also be introducing more local elements and sharing plates. And once business stabilises — as we have just been opened for a month — we might have events with HomesToLife and external parties.”

With all these in store, how could you resist picking up a stylish chair while waiting for your food?

I12 Katong, #03-06