Keppel Island: more about developments there

Geoffrey Eu, Business Times - 08 Dec 2007

Escape to simple pleasures at island resort
Chill out at an integrated food and beverage outfit in exclusive surroundings, writes GEOFFREY EU

Prive at Keppel Bay
2 Keppel Bay Vista, Marina at Keppel Bay

JUST when you thought Sentosa had the monopoly on resort island lifestyles, along comes tiny Keppel Island, which at a fraction of the size of its more prominent neighbour a short distance away, looks ready to muscle in on the action.

Starting next week, the latest entry in waterfront F & B concepts opens for business, and on offer is yet another upmarket option in this fast-developing segment of the lifestyle business.

There's the island lifestyle - and then there's the private island lifestyle. Keppel Island ups the ante on exclusivity. Prive - an integrated food and beverage resort of relatively intimate proportions located within the just-completed Marina at Keppel Bay - is the newest of entrepreneur Michel Lu's high hip-quotient ventures, and he seems intent on providing Singaporeans with a full slate of relaxed-yet-fashionable chill-out destinations in a variety of interesting and unusual locations.

Lu is the creative force behind Hacienda, a garden bar in the Dempsey Road entertainment hub; Cicada, a casual cafe in the Portsdown Road district and Superfamous, a stylish burger and sandwich joint in the CBD next to the OCBC building.

Prive, comprising a modern New York-style restaurant, an outdoor gastrobar by the marina's edge and a bakery cafe serving sandwiches, fresh pies and milk shakes, is a partnership between Lu and Yuan Oeij, a long-time friend and serious cook who started the Brown Sugar bistro. Lu is also a shareholder in that business.

Keppel Island, sitting at the end of a newly built bridge in Keppel Bay, is a scaled-down, miniature version of Sentosa. There are plans by the Keppel Group to eventually build a small number of luxury homes on the island but for now, there is only a 200-berth marina and a clubhouse complex. Prive is on the ground floor, just steps away from the water and facing Keppel's signature residential developments Caribbean at Keppel Bay and the much-hyped, soon-to-be-built Reflections at Keppel Bay.

Unlike other waterside establishments, the restaurant part of Prive is inward looking, blocked off from views of the water by a marble wall. The interior is lush and carpeted, with private rooms in addition to the main dining area. Well-known Aussie chef Tony Bilson was invited by Lu to be Prive's non-resident executive chef. The pair also worked together on a previous restaurant venture, Centro 360, which has since closed.

Bilson, who heads an eponymous and highly rated contemporary French restaurant in Sydney, developed the menu at Prive and will make bi-monthly trips here to check on its progress. Both restaurants will also exchange staff regularly.

Starters include chilled oyster veloute ($16) and sauteed frog legs ($32), while main dishes include roasted bone marrow risotto ($42), char-grilled US Angus beef ($58), braised roulade of oxtail ($45), rack of Kurobuta pork ($45) and a one-kilo slab of bone-in ribeye ($150).

Patrons in search of a more open and relaxed atmosphere will gravitate towards the gastrobar, which is warm, inviting and entirely outdoors. There are sofas to lounge on, music wafting from speakers in the planter boxes and views across the water to the mainland virtually a stone's throw away.

'I really like it ... there's no toll like Sentosa and I don't have to go through multiple roundabouts to get somewhere,' says Lu. 'As soon as you cross the bridge, you're here.' He adds: 'I wanted an opportunity to do something more refined and up market - when you have a private island, straight away it is exclusive. This place seems like it is far away - like Dempsey in the beginning - but it is very accessible.'

Says Lu: 'Here, we have a unique location and a nice atmosphere. We are fully committed to the best ingredients but we've kept the focus on the basics - there are not enough places doing simple things and doing it well.'

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