The first Hainanese who arrived in Singapore in the 1880s settled in the area around Seah Street, Purvis Street, and Middle Road. The roads to this enclave were understood colloquially as “Hai Kou / Hainan First Street”(Middle Road), “Hainan Second Street” (Purvis Street) , and “Hainan Third Street” (Seah Street).
For this humble Hainan eatery we looked to hark back to its roots, by extracting elements of its heritage from the shophouses on “Hainan Second Street” (Purvis Street). Textural and function details were abstracted by clean lines and reinterpreted here to convey an authentic Hainanese experience, updated.