Party Central
Striking out on your own isn’t quite a piece of cake even when you’re surrounded by successful businessmen, but for Grace Goh-lee, business is now a party, confetti and all, writes Melissa Gail Sing
s she flits about the expansive living room of this grand District 10 home, a spring in her step and a sparkle in her eyes, it’s easy to think that Grace Goh-lee is one of those people who’s just very contented with her life. And why wouldn’t she be? The daughter of self-made millionaire Tommie Goh, she co-founded the popular Thaiexpress restaurant chain with her serial entrepreneur husband Ivan Lee and whizzes around town in a red Ferrari (a gift from Ivan for her 33rd birthday). To top that, she’s a proud, and very svelte-looking, mum of two little girls and has time to indulge in her passion for running. Her childhood was simpler. As both her parents worked, she lived with her maternal grandmother in a two-bedroom flat shared with her aunt and three uncles. “I didn’t have many toys and didn’t like playing with dolls, but I loved reading. I had library cards issued under every family member’s name so every week, my grandma would accompany me to the library and we’d cart home loads of books. All that reading allowed me to develop a great imagination and love for words,” she shares. After obtaining an honours degree in philosophy from the National University of Singapore, she and Ivan, then her fiance, started a cafe called Onyx in Siglap. They later created Thaiexpress, which today comes under Minor Food Group. When the business started to take off, she decided to go back to school to study law since Ivan was managing the business well on his own. She fulfilled her dream of becoming a lawyer in 2006, and when her daughters came along, her attention turned to them. In between, she would train for marathons. Then in 2013, she began following a bakery, Little House of Dreams, on Facebook. “Looking at the pictures of the pretty cakes always made me happy,” she says. Not long after, she got in touch with its founder Audrey Lee, and the pair hit it off. They became business partners within three months, when Grace invested in Audrey’s business, Dreams Establishment. These days, what’s been giving Grace greater reason to smile is helping people create good times and lasting party memories. And the best part is, it’s all in a day’s work for her. Earlier this year, she and Audrey added a new brand to their company. Dreams and Confetti is a one-stop party shop in Great World City specialising in tableware, premium partyware, decor and baking essentials, that also boasts the largest range of cake stands for sale in Singapore. “Our Little House of Dreams bakery does a lot of dessert tables, and we have many beautiful cake stands and other display stands. Customers were always asking us where we got them from and if they could buy them from us. We realised that there was no cake stand specialist in Singapore, which was a real pity, as very often, beautiful cakes end up sitting on a plate,” she explains. “We believe every beautiful cake deserves a cake stand, and every home and restaurant should have at least one. Hence, we started sourcing for good brands to bring in. From there, we naturally moved on to bringing in other premium partyware to complement a whole party set-up.”
“When people step into our Dreams and Confetti store, they always smile and they always feel happy. Everyone has space in their life for a little happy thing”