Wala Wala has been a long-time Holland Village F&B icon and a cherished venue for local musicians. Options talks to its owner Stanley Yeo about its journey, future and sister venture, HIVE by Wala Wala, Singapore’s biggest bar and restaurant.

It is Sunday night, but the Wala Wala Café Bar is buzzing. Downstairs, tables spill onto the sidewalk, while upstairs, the crowd is enjoying music performed by local poprock duo Jack and Rai. Many are in casual attire. Some are in flip-flops. The vibe is unpretentious and homey, something that hasn’t changed in the 23 years since the bar opened its doors in a two-storey shophouse in Holland Village.

In Singapore’s unforgiving F&B scene, where restaurants, cafés and bars pop up and shutter, sometimes within a year or two, Wala Wala has endured. Through the boom times and the slow years and the never-ending remaking of the Holland Village enclave, the neighbourhood bar has beaten the odds.

“When we opened in 1993, five other F&B outlets started at the same time on Lorong Mambong [where Wala Wala is located],” owner Stanley Yeo recalls. “Four are not around anymore.” Wala Wala — which offers live music every single night of the week — is not only a popular haunt in the nightlife circuit, it has also become a launch pad for budding local musicians looking to showcase their work.

Along the way, it has garnered a coterie of regulars who themselves have grown up with the bar. The watering hole is a natural draw for locals living in the vicinity, as well as 20-somethings from colleges around the area, such as the National University of Singapore and Insead. “Some of them are now married and they come back with their kids,” notes Yeo. Some who met at Wala Wala have even had their wedding photos taken there.

“I would say that the crowd is about 60% regulars,” says operations manager Maniam Krishnan, who has been with Wala Wala since it opened for business. “We have customers who have been coming in for 23 years. Now, their children are coming in with their girlfriends or boyfriends for a beer.” New dining and drinking spots keep springing up all around it, as well as at nearby Rochester, Buona Vista and Dempsey. But Wala Wala continues to pull in patrons with a cocktail of wallet-friendly prices, an easy-going atmosphere and a variety of live bands.

It is those reasonably priced drinks that have kept the tills ringing at Wala Wala, pulling in about 80% of revenue. The rest comes from food bills, where the menu runs from bar grub, such as its well-received chicken wings, to heartier fare such as pizzas and pastas. The margins on drinks are better, Yeo acknowledges, but having a decent spread of food is important as it helps keep customers around.

Fostering local music
When it introduced live music 15 years ago, Wala Wala stood out by offering a revolving door of bands instead of a resident band, as was standard in most other bars, pubs and clubs. Many of the acts were home-grown and several were emerging names, such as Jack and Rai, who got their start at Wala Wala.

Back in 2002, Jack Ho and Rai Kannu were part-time soloists, strumming acoustic renditions of songs from bands such as U2, Coldplay and the Dave Matthews Band. When they heard that Wala Wala was looking for performers, they decided to team up. They were slotted for a Sunday night as that is typically a safe time for any club to roll out a new act. That first night, they played to an audience of about four. But a year on, they were packing in the crowds.

Now full-time musicians with an album of original work under their belts, Ho and Kannu play in a variety of venues across Singapore. However, they still perform every Sunday night at Wala Wala. “Wala Wala will always be a special place for us, being the [venue] where Jack and Rai performed together, as a duo, for the very first time,” Ho and Kannu tell Options. Fourteen years on, the two still look forward to performing there, which, they say, is “testimony to the magic of the venue”.

Wala Wala has also set the stage for other local acts such as Shirlyn & The UnXpected, which has been belting out rock-influenced covers since April 2002 at the bar. Outside of mainstream pop, it has also hosted singer-songwriter Tay Kewei, a 32-year-old Singaporean who sings in English, Mandarin and Japanese and is now a recognisable name in the world of Mandarin pop. “There are a lot of pretty good local singers out there,” says Yeo, who sources and handles all the musicians himself.

Hive of entertainment
Live music similarly takes the spotlight at HIVE by Wala Wala, a massive new F&B venture seeking to capitalise on the brand Yeo has built. With rents climbing in sought-after Holland Village, Yeo wanted to have a Plan B in case he had to move his business. Scouting around for premises, he heard from an architect friend that space was available at the annex to a local hotel. The building on Havelock Road was famed for its five floors of karaoke lounges and nightclubs. However, the landlord was looking to rebrand the annex and Yeo was offered a sprawling 13,700 sq ft of space. That was more than three times what he was looking for and what he was used to at Holland Village, but he decided to go for it. And so, at end-January, Yeo opened what has become Singapore’s largest restaurant and bar.

Given its heft, its proximity to the CBD and the tourist traffic from hotels close by, Yeo is relying on a more diversified formula at HIVE. The acoustically designed bar and restaurant area, together with its al fresco veranda that screens sports channels all day, can seat 400 people. Aside from the bar, which carries 35 types of beers and ciders as well as a selection of unique whiskies, it has a glass-encased wine cellar with some 125 labels on its shelves.

The kitchen serves Western and local dishes, such as its signature Cantonese roast meats and noodles, because, according to Yeo, “no one has done this in a bar environment”. At night, the kitchen switches to izakaya mode, adding yakitori dishes to the line-up. There is also a deli serving pastries and ice cream, a private room for hire and a cigar room called the Bowmore Room. Yeo, a whisky enthusiast, counts the Scottish distiller’s peaty Devil’s Casks as one of his favourite single malts.

Yeo has also designed HIVE to cater for events such as product launches, fashion shows, weddings and corporate dinners. The front doors, for example, can be opened up to allow for car launches. So far, however, the bar has been the mainstay, with familiar faces from Wala Wala making up many of its customers. It is also seeing a steady flow of hotel guests. Eleven bands provide entertainment each week and the line-up includes Jack and Rai and Shirlyn & The UnXpected.

Expanding in a big way in these tepid economic times would seem a gamble, especially as only six in 10 smaller F&B businesses survive their first five years of operations, according to a 2014 SPRING Singapore study. Yeo, however, is well acquainted with having to stick it out. Wala Wala, after all, took about five years to make money. He reckons HIVE could take about four years to break even.

Long hours, no days off
“People think it’s so easy [opening a café or restaurant],” he says. “But you need to be in it for the long run. You need to have holding power.” And, as a business owner, you need to be prepared to roll up your sleeves and get down to work. In the early years, Wala Wala had very few staff, Yeo recalls. Often, it was just Maniam and Yeo behind the bar, with the latter doubling up as cashier. “At times, we were working straight for three months with no days off,” he says.

However, after a busy night, knowing the service went smoothly and that they had hit the sales target despite being shorthanded gave him satisfaction. “It was these little accomplishments that propelled me forward,” he says. He also gives credit to his wife Lilis, who has been his biggest supporter. “Without her, I don’t think I would have made it this far.”

His advice to folks wanting to go into F&B? “Be prepared to work 20-hour shifts,” he cautions. “And, if you don’t have enough staff, you have to come in.” Staffing is easily the biggest challenge when running a bar, he adds, as reliable employees are scarce on the ground and a good number of people who go into F&B are young and untrained.

“That’s what Singapore lacks: a service-oriented culture. If next door is opening and offers $100 more, they will go. Then, they come back in two months,” Yeo points out. Currently, his company employs about 120 staff at the two outlets. Of these, about a quarter have been with him for more than 10 years. The longest serving is Maniam, 48, who worked his way up from bartender to operations manager.

In the beginning, Maniam was juggling work with parttime law studies. At times, he had to take time off for classes or exams. “Stanley was very accommodating,” he recalls, citing that as a reason he decided to join the company full time. He also describes Yeo as a very involved and hands-on boss, who sits down with front-line staff and tries to find out what customers want.

Yeo, 47, didn’t plan on a career in the F&B world. In university in Canada, he studied computer science. On returning to Singapore, his older brother decided to open a restaurant. Yeo began helping out, handling IT for the business. He then took on other roles such as purchasing and HR. If he weren’t doing this, he would have gone into something such as graphic design, reckons Yeo, an avid photographer who has made safari expeditions to Africa to photograph the big five game animals as well as to Norway to capture the Northern Lights.

Yeo, who has three children aged 22, 18 and 15, may not have foreseen it, but the little bar he started has garnered a following, and its faithful employees, musicians and customers have become like family to him. With HIVE, staff strength and musicians have doubled in number and the family has mushroomed. In the early years, Wala Wala was like the TV sitcom Cheers, Maniam recalls. “People knew each other. They sat around the bar. They talked to one another,” he says. Things are different these days and the Circle Line, which began in 2011, brings in people from other parts of the island. “But the laid-back atmosphere is still there,” Maniam notes.

What is less clear is whether the bar will continue to weather the stiff rents the neighbourhood commands. Rents have been adjusted up 10% to 15% every two years since Wala Wala started, notes Yeo, who currently who pays just over $10 per sq ft. The lease is set for renewal in December. “I wouldn’t like to pay anything more,” he says. He pauses, then adds: “[In the] worst-case [scenario], I will keep the downstairs. I will try very hard not to close it.” Singaporeans who grew up with the hangout must certainly be hoping so.

Sunita Sue Leng, formerly an associate editor at The Edge Singapore, usually finds inspiration after a glass of wine.

This article appeared in the Options of Issue 734 (June 27) of The Edge Singapore.