With popular café haunt Sarnies under his belt, Benjamin Lee is no stranger to Singapore’s specialty coffee scene. For his latest venture, he has teamed up with Louise Tong-Davies, aka the lady behind Supper Club, and Chef Darren Farr to open The Lokal – Neil Road’s coolest new hangout.
So this is ‘next generation’ Sarnies? Tell us why you’ve called it The Lokal?
It’s like your local pub or local restaurant, where you head for good food, good drink, and good times. That’s the idea with The Lokal, in that it’s the place you can easily head down to several times per week. We used the German spelling of the word as a hat tip to the Goethe institute upstairs.
Why did you decide on this location?
The Goethe institute found us actually, mainly because of the schnitzel sandwich we whip up at Sarnies. We checked out the location, and realised it was on a busy corner, surrounded by residences, and right near the Keong Saik Street area – we were sold!
How is The Lokal different to Sarnies?
The essence of good food, good coffee, good chat, and not taking ourselves too seriously is still there but I guess it’s a bit more refined. One customer put it as: The Lokal is like your mrs, Sarnies is like your mistress.
We are loving the interior design – can you tell us about it?
It’s all thanks to design legend, Alan Barr, who is also the Founder and Managing Director of Singapore based design firm Grey Matters. We pretty much let the guy off the leash to be the mastermind of the project, and we think he came back with something truly special.
What is the stand-out ‘die die must try’ breakfast dish?
If you are hungry, grab a veal schnitzel burger for lunch. That is the king. For breakfast, I like the “pimp my breakfast”, where you can build your meal to go from simple poached eggs on sourdough, to one that’s jazzed up with scrambled eggs, smoked mackerel, smashed avocado, and homemade ricotta. You can be a glutton, vegetarian, or paleo with this option.
We love the homemade butter, smoked fish, even pickled watermelon – tell us about the homemade items?
Chef Daz’s fetish (or one of them) is making things from scratch. It tastes so much better and you know exactly what has gone into it. That’s very important to us.
Are there plans for dinner service?
Yes, sometime in August. It’s going to be epic. (Editor’s note: we can’t wait!)
In three words, how would you describe The Lokal?
Keeping it real.
The Lokal, 136 Neil Road, Singapore 088865, p. 6423 9918. Open Mon-Fri 8am-6pm, Sat-Sun 9am-4pm.