Dearborn

Fifty jars of granola, gone in 30 minutes. The restaurant came later.

Go to Dearborn's Breakfast Club for a weekday breakfast that has been properly thought about, with a friend who likes to linger or a book on your own. The catch is that it runs on its own terms: walk-in only, closed on Tuesdays and finished by mid-afternoon, so it rewards getting up rather than rolling in. Order the potato and egg, and leave the granola shopping for another day at Everton Park.

From jars to a dining room

The order of events explains the menu. Christopher Kong's private supper club, Dearborn, had been running since 2018 when the circuit breaker shut dining rooms in April 2020. He went into what he called "survivor mode" and baked granola instead. The first 50 jars went up on Instagram and sold out within 30 minutes; a home oven turning out about six jars an hour became a borrowed kitchen, then a central kitchen near Boat Quay.

The CV behind the oats is not what you'd expect from a cereal brand. Kong grew up making fresh pasta at his family's Italian restaurant in Seattle, cooked at Restaurant Guy Savoy in Singapore, joined Waku Ghin in 2014 and later worked as a sous-chef at The NoMad in New York under Daniel Humm. Even in 2021 he was talking about building the product first and the restaurant later. That is more or less what happened.

Two addresses, two different mornings

Know which one you want. The Breakfast Club is the sit-down version, on the third floor of New Bahru, the lifestyle enclave in a former school building on Kim Yam Road. Dearborn bills it as a "small but mighty" dine-in menu with a micro bakery and take-home breakfast provisions: a compact, pastel-toned room with a long communal table down the middle, which is where the solo diner ends up. Everton Park is Granola HQ, the "birthplace of our granola" in the brand's words, where the organic oats and Grade A maple syrup are baked and packed and more than 20 flavours rotate. Go there to stock up; new flavours open for pre-order on Sundays at noon.

What to order

The granola bowls, with the house plain or the dark chocolate, hazelnut and sea salt, are the safe order. The cooking is the reason to sit down. The potato and egg is where the fine-dining training shows: a 63-degree egg, roasted potatoes, sourdough croutons, chive oil and potato foam, finished with puffed grains, which is a great deal of technique for what is, at heart, egg and chips. After that, the steel-cut oat congee with prawns and scallop at the bottom, and a seaweed madeleine for the road.

Dearborn also talks about traceable, sustainable sourcing and has described tracking its carbon emissions, which fits a business that has always called itself small and locally owned.

How to do it well

Go on a weekday. With no bookings there is no way to secure a weekend table in advance, and Saturday is when everyone else has the same idea. Plan around the hours: closed Tuesdays, last orders at 2.30pm. Great World is the nearest MRT.

Good to know The New Bahru Breakfast Club (46 Kim Yam Road #03-04) is walk-in only and open Wednesday to Monday, 9am–3pm, last orders 2.30pm, closed Tuesdays. Everton Park (1 Everton Park #01-29) is retail and granola HQ, with the kitchen closed on Sundays. Check dearborn.sg for current hours before you go.

The rest of New Bahru is worth a look while you're on Kim Yam Road: our guide to eating there.

Dearborn | 46 Kim Yam Road #03-04, Singapore 239351 (New Bahru) | Nearest MRT: Great World