the garden slug

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.