The Business of Happiness

The F&B industry is a cut‑throat one, but for Andrea and Ethel Chua, the founders of The Oyster Bank restaurants and cocktail service Kiki’s Reserve, the recipe for success is simple: doing right by people

- Annabel Tan

Ethel and Andrea Chua may have been in the F&B business for about nine years now, but there is little known about the sibling proprietors of The Oyster Bank restaurants and cocktail service Kiki’s Reserve. The 30‑year‑old Ethel and her younger sister Andrea, 27, keep their Instagram profiles private and, until now, have declined media interviews, preferring instead to keep the spotlight on their buzzy F&B ventures.

“We didn’t feel ready to come out and talk about what we do yet,” says Ethel. Andrea adds that while they still do not feel completely ready, they are taking the advice of one of their biggest supporters, whom they met through Kiki’s Reserve, and Tatler friend Paige Parker. “She always tells me to say yes to life,” shares Andrea. “So we decided, let’s do it.”

The sisters made their first foray into F&B in 2014 with the now‑shuttered underground bar HopHeads. In 2019, they opened their second business, The Oyster Bank, in Funan mall, offering a more casual and approachable take on an oyster bar, serving what Andrea describes as “an adult happy meal”: oysters and bubbly. From the first day of opening, the concept was a winner and the crowd kept coming. But when the Covid‑19 restrictions kicked in months later, both HopHeads and The Oyster Bank took a hit and the sisters, like many in the F&B industry at the time, had to pivot their businesses.