http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/prem...close-20131002
Published October 02, 2013
Wild Rocket on Mount Emily to close
By debbie yong [email protected]
EIGHT years after setting out to place modern Singapore cuisine on the global culinary map, iconic local restaurant Wild Rocket is headed for a hiatus.
The restaurant atop Mount Emily will close on Dec 1, according to chef-owner Willin Low, 41. A relocation of the restaurant is pending, though a new venue has not yet been identified.
"I've been thinking whether to stay on and do a revamp or relocate and do something new for the last two months," said Mr Low, who hopes to re-open Wild Rocket by March next year.
The former lawyer plunged into the food-and-beverage industry full-time in 2005, when he set up the 60-seater Wild Rocket within the premises of the Hangout Hotel, Cathay Organisation's hip budget hostel on Upper Wilkie Road.
The restaurant opened to a strong buzz over its contemporary takes on familiar hawker fare, such as laksa pesto pasta and pandan panna cotta, which Mr Low eventually ascribed as "Mod Sin" (or modern Singaporean) cuisine. The term is now a widely recognised one in the local culinary circuit, and similar fusion influences can be seen in many restaurants today.
"The restaurant scene in Singapore has become so exciting that restaurants like us, who have been around for eight or 10 years, can't just sit there and continue doing the same thing," Mr Low added. "That's why I wanted to be challenged. I wanted a redo of everything."
The restaurant will re-open next year with the same name and "the same DNA", Mr Low said. "It's going to be an evolution, not a revolution."
As for the new location, it will hopefully be "somewhere interesting, as that reflects our food, which is familiar yet different", he said. "It will either be in a conventional building in an interesting location, or an interesting building in a conventional location."
He has no criteria for size for now, and how upscale or casual the new restaurant will be will depend on its eventual address.
As for the issue of manpower - a thorny one for most restaurateurs these days - Mr Low will be retaining and re-training his key restaurant staff during the interim period. Wild Rocket employees will either be deployed within the Wild Rocket Group's other eateries, Relish and Wild Oats, or sent to pick up new skills in a local bakery and a local coffee roaster owned by Mr Low's friends. One of his chefs will train with a restaurant in Asia that is listed on the World's 50 Best Restaurant Guide, while another service staff will be sent to work in a Michelin star-rated restaurant in Europe.
"Everyone is excited to go and try something different so we can all bring something new to the table when we get back together," said Mr Low. Meanwhile, Mr Low will be busying himself with organising pop-up dinners at Temporium, a collaborative boutique and diner recently set up with local design agency Tofu, as well as guest chef stints overseas.
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