SINGAPORE – You rock up to a new cafe. It is called Average Service. Maybe you smile at the name. Then, perhaps, you wonder: Is the name a promise or a threat?

Gorgeous interiors, good music and Instagrammable food are not enough. In Singapore’s tough restaurant scene, owners are looking for buzz, for people to talk about their latest ventures.

More than 3,000 new restaurants open every year – it was 3,790 in 2024 – so it helps to stick out, and to stick in people’s heads. This is especially since 3,047 food businesses shuttered in 2024.

Enter the unusual restaurant name. Some recent ones include Club Street Laundry and its speakeasy bar Hup San Social Club; French bistro-bar Pulsii in Tras Street; burger takeaway place Kowboy in Bali Lane; South & East, a restaurant in Kent Ridge Drive; chia seed pudding cafe Chia Puddies in Clarke Quay Central; two restaurants serving Hong Kong-style food – Hey Kee in Guillemard Road and Lo Hey HK Seafood at One Holland Village; and the aforementioned Average Service in Jalan Besar.

Location, location, location

Nobody in his or her right mind would turn up at Club Street Laundry – cafe by day, modern-Australian restaurant by night – with a bag of dirty clothes. It just sounds like a tongue-in-cheek restaurant name.

Except that the four partners in this 28-seat venue, and the adjoining 11-seat speakeasy bar Hup San Social Club, have a compelling reason for choosing these names. It has to do with the location.

Club Street was home to many Chinese clubs in the 19th century, including Ee Hoe Hean Club and Goh Loo Club. These were where Chinese immigrants would gather for leisure and business.

Chef Justin Hammond, 44, one of the partners, says of the research they did: “We wanted to pay homage to what was here before. Back in the 1930s and 1940s, this building housed one of two laundries in Club Street. Hup San was the name of the laundry.”

So, they named the cafe-restaurant Club Street Laundry and Hup San became the name of the bar. Both opened in January...