Street Food Warms Your Heart: 31 Bar & Kitchen at 31 Keong Saik Road S(089138)

Tuesday, April 21, 2015

31 Bar & Kitchen at 31 Keong Saik Road S(089138) - The Ambience & The Menu

31 Bar & Kitchen Ambience

31 Bar & Kitchen is a French Gastrobar co-founded by Frenchman André Rannaud, 45, from Lyon, France. An F&B veteran with 27 years' experience, André Rannaud has been active in the F&B industry, having stayed in Singapore for the past 15 years. Together with Franck Herbaux [MD of Estima Consulting (S) Pte Ltd], Daphane Wang & Fabien Giordano, André Rannaud started 31 Bar & Kitchen in April 2014 after closure of Provence Le Restaurant. Estima Gourmet Pte Ltd is the current holding company of 31 Bar & Kitchen - a French Gastrobar with Singapore influence & serves mainly Modern International Cuisine with Asian spices. The kitchen is helmed by Executive Chef Tan Chee Leong who brings with him more than 23 years' culinary experience.

Located at No 31, Keong Saik Road, 31 Bar & Kitchen is housed in the first floor of the shophouse with a seating capacity of about 40 pax indoors & about 12 pax al fresco outdoors.

Whilst the external facade of the shophouse retains the colonial design on the second & third level where there are residents & tenants who reside, the first level gastrobar maintains a slightly different, contrasting color scheme of champagne grey as opposed to the pastel blue of the other floors.

André Rannaud and his team at 31 Bar & Kitchen pretty much DIY most of the furnishing & decor you find here. The furniture, chair & tables, come in different designs, with some rustic table designs that are handmade from solid tree trunks.

The hanging light you find at the Bar counter are DIY projects made by André Rannaud himself using old wine bottles.

The interior furnishing is minimal, & André Rannaud prefers to retain the original fixtures, leaving the cement floor in its original condition without any tiles or flooring to give a totally rustic look & concept, a stark contrast to his previous outfit Provence Le Restaurant where it was a full-fledged restaurant, fully furnished.

Here at 31 Bar & Kitchen, André Rannaud wanted a more casual relaxing atmosphere, to concentrate on the truly tangible offerings to his patrons by serving up great tasting gourmet food, great wines (from renowned wine producers who practice organic & bio-dynamic viticulture in France, Italy, Spain, Australia), superb cheeses, instead of focusing too much on the exterior hardware.

The subtle hints & clues that you are in a French establishment is the presence of framed posters like these depicting brands such as Bourin (*above) & Consummez (**below) or Besserat De Bellefon (***far below)

Just as much as the hanging lights are recycled from old wine bottles to give 31 Bar & Kitchen a classic cozy ambience, if you take a closer look at the Liquor & Wine display shelves where our Bar Manager & Mixologist Faizal struts his stuff, you'd notice the display shelves are really recycled wood pallet painted in black.