WEARING YOUR PLATE ON YOUR SLEEVE

Hospitality merchandise is in, as more diners follow restaurants, bars and cafes with the dedication of groupies trailing musicians.

with customers beyond the food and drinks.

“We started doing merch around 2016, after the book Artichoke:Stories andRecipesfromSingapore’sMost

RebelliousKitchen was launched. The first-ever cap we made cost $42 to produce and we sold it for $45, so we certainly didn’t make any money from that. It’s also one of the few pieces of merch that we still have,” says

Bjorn Shen, chef-owner of Artichoke restaurant.

Since then, Artichoke has worked with a few friends on its boldly designed, usually humorous merch such as a T-shirt with a wolfman declaring: “Why have abs when you have kebabs” from designer Claudius Keng and a Kickapoo Joy Juiceinspired graphic created by illustrator Eric Foenander for Artichoke’s jamboree party.

In fact, most F&B merchandise is born from a sense of community. Shen has tops with prints of various guest chef collaborations done at gourmet sandwich joint Park Bench Deli and counts a T-shirt by Gubak Kia, which adds a modern spin to classic dishes from the famous Empress Place Beef Kway Teow, among his favourites.

“If I see people wearing Artichoke merch on the street, I’d fist-bump them. Usually, they’re other industry people, ex-staffers who are proud to have worked here or regulars who come to our events. It’s like wearing a band T-shirt to a concert,” says Shen.

In fact, the sense of community is so strong that such merch sometimes crosses borders. Ian Lim of natural wine bar RVLT says: “We get very excited when we see our merchandise move around overseas. I’ve had winemakers from overseas send me pictures of people with our merch. Because [natural wine] is such a small scene, you’re more inclined to say hi if you meet someone on the street wearing related merch. It’s like running into someone wearing the T-shirt of your favourite, super obscure punk band.”

Lyla Lin, director of Loop

PR and RVLT regular, recalls an occasion when she was dining at Barabba in Copenhagen. “The chef saw my friends and I wearing RVLT T-shirts and told us how he had many fond memories of partying at the bar after the World’s 50

Best Restaurants Awards 2019 in Singapore. Because of this connection, we got extra food and wine – and we sent him some merch once we go back.”

Understandably, purchasing merch from your favourite places is a great way to support bars and restaurants that are unable to operate or are struggling right now. At the time of writing, Artichoke, for instance, was printing a T-shirt exhorting people to “Stay home FFS (For F**k’s Sake)”.

“the chef saw my friends and i wearing rvlt t-shirts. because of this connection, we got extra food and wine.”