PETALING JAYA, Nov 4 — It’s the name that captures your attention (and, if you’re a fan of the modern classic, your imagination) first.
Paying homage to the 1951 novel by J.D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye is a new café in Section 17, PJ by Chris Yap and Sujian Khor, the husband and wife team behind Wild Sheep Chase. (That soufflé haven in Taman Desa was inspired by Japanese author Haruki Murakami’s novel A Wild Sheep Chase. Literary themes are a particular fancy of the couple.)
Why not Wild Sheep Chase 2, you might wonder, if the duo are trying to expand their business? Indeed for brand identity purposes, such positioning could draw in immediate crowds with the name recognition alone. To their credit, Yap and Khor don’t believe in the obvious or easy route.
Perhaps their independent sensibility stems from the fact that they began as novices to the F&B (food and beverage) industry. When they first opened Wild Sheep Chase in 2015, they had no relevant experience to their name beyond being a pair of avid coffee drinkers and café hoppers. All they had was a dream.
Three years and plenty of hard-won lessons later, their first café is running like clockwork with a well-trained team of pastry chefs, baristas and servers. No one would fault them for resting on their laurels and reaping their rewards.
Ah, but the people matter.
No, not the customers — of which they have been blessed with a community of diehard regulars — nor the occasional troll on social media, but their staff. Yap explains, “It’s hard for any business to hire good people but even harder to retain them.
When you’ve invested so much time and energy on them, it’s important that you see them as more than just employees but your fellow team members.”
Manpower attrition is especially widespread in F&B where there is plenty of movement between restaurants and cafés, not only because of a limited pool of skilled talents in search of higher salaries, but for growth opportunities. Yap says, “When you’re running a small F&B business, even with higher than average pay, there is a ceiling of job positions. But even the most loyal staff can find it difficult to stay if you don’t help them grow.”
With this in mind, the couple has been looking for ways to expand their business organically. Serendipitously, a former staff had showed them how much more they could do with their ice cream machine, which gave them a potential new direction to pursue.
Khor says, “I realised that our machine had very low ROI (return on investment) as it could only produce seven scoops at a go. At the same time, I discovered that most commercial ice creams available were made with pre-mixes. What if we could produce more ice cream but also a better quality product made with fresher ingredients?”
Thus the idea to open a new business in the form of an ice cream and coffee parlour was formed, which would also provide their team with new challenges. They made the decision to invest in a larger, more expensive ice cream making machine but with an eye for the long term and volume. Together with their most senior staff, they attended an ice cream making course at the Carpigiani Gelato University in Singapore.
Yap and Khor are pragmatic by nature but they certainly don’t believe in doing anything by halves either. If something is worth doing, it is worth doing right.
Naturally, with three years of running a café under their belt, they weren’t surprised by the hiccups along the way. Khor says, “Our original plan was to find a half-size shoplot, just nice for an ice cream parlour, but we couldn’t find one small enough that we liked. Instead we found the current space in this quiet neighbourhood which was bigger than we needed. Then we thought, why not make full use of it to help our team grow?”
Opened late last month in a refurbished double-storey shophouse, Catcher in the Rye retains the original floor tiles for a hint of 1970s nostalgia. The space feels open and gloriously sunlit; a skylight in the inner yard, accented judiciously with trees, captures the mood of a staycation in the suburbs.
Besides their signature flat whites and soufflés made with kampung eggs, popular items carried forward from their Wild Sheep Chase menu, Catcher in the Rye offers new hot dishes. Try the batter-fried chicken thigh atop sweet potato rösti served with guacamole and garlic baby kailan; the deep-fried mac-and-cheese paired with eggs (let them know whether sunny-side-ups or an omelette would work better — they’re trying out both); even a simple French toast made with their own bread.
An interesting feature is the shiny dumb waiter that connects the coffee bar downstairs with the central kitchen upstairs that will in time supply freshly baked breads and ice creams to Wild Sheep Chase. The kitchen also doubles as a playground to test new recipes; of the ice cream flavours they have been experimenting thus far, the chrysanthemum is a standout, delicate and floral.
Right now they are in their soft launch period with limited opening days. They’re hiring; once their team is at full strength, they operate on more days. Khor says, “We are on the lookout for those who have some extra to bring to the team. Many of those who have worked with us for years started as complete newbies to this industry, just like we were.”
Clearly this is not just a team in which one grows in skills and strength but also a family who grows closer together, with each hurdle overcome and every success celebrated.
Catcher in the Rye
605, Jalan 17/12, Seksyen 17, Petaling Jaya
Open Fri-Sun 11am-7pm (soft launch period)
Tel: 012-312 1203
www.facebook.com/catcherintheryecafe/
Wild Sheep Chase
6-1, Jalan 1/109E, Desa Business Park, Taman Desa, Kuala Lumpur
Open Tue-Wed 12pm-8pm, Thu-Fri 12pm-10pm, Sat-Sun 10am-10pm, Mon closed
Tel: 012-312 1203
