the garden slug

[Updated: 30 June 2009]

We are hiring. Seriously.

Part-time Slug

Able to commit a minimum of 25 hours a week, for a period of 6 months or more. Job scope & staff benefits listed below.

Full-time Slug

5-day work week with a maximum of 44 hours per week. Job scope & staff benefits listed below.

Staff benefits:

- Staff meals, overtime pay, after-hours transportation provided if shift ends late at night, generally one of the best working environments in Singapore.

Job scope:
- Able to multi-task: Make beverages, desserts, taking menu orders, taking care of customers’ needs, being friendly (yes, all at the same time).
- Occasional kitchen work + housekeeping duties.
- Off-site corporate and private party food planning, execution & set-up. A strong back and some muscles required.
- Serious applicants only please.
- due to certain gov’t restrictions, currently we are able to hire Singapore citizens and PRs only. Singapore citizens, PRs and foreigners welcome to apply.

Know anyone with the right values, energy and passion to be part of an indie-run diner like ours? Send ‘em our way. Are you one of these rare people we’re looking for? E-mail your CVs to justask@thegardenslug.com with the subject Part-time Slug or Full-time Slug

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httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTtYW8pI9jg

“Thank you very much for all your assistance during our planning for Genesis II’s Silver Jubilee! Your accomodation to our every request made it much easier for us and we have enjoyed working with you. We will definitely be recommending Garden Slug to our friends and of course, GII will be back! =)
Kudos to the top notch service! Attached is a photo of a very satisfied customer”
Regards,
Clara
on behalf of Genesis II’s Anniversary Committee- Holy Family Church

A quick note from the slugs : We had so much fun organizing the 90 guest -party for the GII members from Holy Family Church (which is just a stone’s throw away from us). Clara and Melina made the planning a breeze with their kind assistance and we must definitely thank Alyson and Aaron for recommending us to their church mates. It was a very very heart-warming sight to see our little diner over-flowing with happy folks.The Garden Slug was awash in an unexplainable glow on that night

Thank you everybody who made this event possible!

Yes- we’ve finally added another cozy chillout corner! So, we have TWO loungey areas for tired souls and delicious gossip Now I just have to lug that low coffee table from home to complete the look.. A big shout out to Nicholas and Clare for giving us their comfy sofa.. THANK YOU! for helping us create a more comfy place for the easties .. For the past year or so, our regular customers ( who have become our friends!) have been incredibly sweeet… They know that we’re a small start up with limited resources, so they’ve been giving us chillers ( 3 infact!), shelves, books etc etc when they could have actually e-bayed those items off, for a neat sum. So, slugphiles, pop by to say Hi and chill out

Nicholas & Clare! We-heart-Yous!

Today, Joe slug and I went a chuggin’ in the trusty old black turtle to Old School at Mt Sophia +9 ( a group of 9 young designers) was showing their Spring/Summer Collection.. The Garden Slug is proud that we played a lil’ part in supporting these talented local designers The other people involved in this project are also a bunch of cool cats like Toni & Guy ( best haircuts in town, no doubt about that) , Adidas, Dr Martens and 42 Below Vodka.

Enjoy the pics! ( Food Porn + Fashion ( not) Porn )

Cheese Board + Grapes ~ Port Salut, Danablu, Aged Edam and Golden Brie

Signature Brownie pops dusted with hand-crushed ginger snaps + White choc-dipped Strawberries

Funky Menu Tent Card… A bit Mondrian, you think?

Some wall art we saw and fancied

Loved the sign of Gallery 2002. So hip it hurts

Free Flow Vodka-laced beverages, we like!

We actually saw people snapping pics of our food using their handphones. We feel like superstar food designers!

The DJ and projection booth doing a sound & light test.

810pm..

812pm..

Let the strutting begin!

Btw, Thanks Dennis and Willehm for popping by :-) But Dennis, you forgot the feather boa, as promised!

Overall, it was a really fabulous event, and gosh we saw Wykidd Song, Hossan Leong ( I think it was him?), Daniel Boey etc etc. Such Celebrity whores we are.. Not! Our initial grand plan was to hobnob and get contacts, make small talk, tell these fashionistas about The Garden Slug.. But Joe slug and I ended up pretty much just talking to each other, and getting sloshed. Ha! So much for PR’ing…. We’re so not smooth at these things.. haha.

Ooo, it’s almost 230am ,and I’ve got an early day tmrw, so I better go bury my face in the pillow now.. ZZZZ!

This time of the year, I always start to reminisce.

About how we were crazy enough to set up a 60-seater restaurant on a shoestring budget…

… and how we decided on the name “The Garden Slug” in August 2006…

but we couldn’t afford to hire a graphic designer. So in our usual stubborn, rebellious, bootstrapping spirit… decided to just do it all ourselves.

I marvel at how we survived on a manpower of 4, sometimes 3½.

It didn’t deter us that we weren’t in the heart of Orchard Road, or somewhere more “happening” with heavier foot traffic.
 

We couldn’t afford it anyway.

And I reminisce about our series of firsts.

Our first catering event, ever.

Our first celebrity-endorsed catering event, ever.

Our first namecards with map at the back… which was horribly wrong!

And a year and a half after opening, we installed our first credit card terminal.

For all our struggles, the Powers That Be awarded us with a big, fat “A“.

We could never afford advertising. Not even a quarter page of any publication.

Somehow, we were entrusted with doing bigger and more “artsy” events each time…

Maybe it helped that we were so incredibly charming, witty and irresistibly good-looking…!

We thought we’d be millionaires after two years. We were grossly mistaken, of course. Good looks can only get you so far.
So what have we now, after residing in the quietest corner of the world for two years?

We have you! …and you, and you, and you, … and you!

We have smiles and warmth and laughter and celebrations and furry friends…
 

…and a bunch of diligent, passionate young Slugs.. who travel all the way from Bukit Panjang and Ang Mo Kio to work with us.

We wouldn’t trade this for anything in the world!

OK maybe for a million dollars we’d trade you off in a heartbeat, without blinking too.

Just kidding

We’d do it all over again. And we wouldn’t have it any other way.

But we couldn’t have done it without you. And you, and you. And you.