Small’s officially opened to the public in February 2020. And, well, who would have guessed that it would be such a wild couple of years? But pass, time must, and 2022 marks a new milestone - Small’s will stop serving pizza and start serving bread sushi.
Ostensibly Bjorn Shen’s R&D kitchen, Small’s was really – as Bjorn unabashedly describes it – his “room of bad ideas”; a tiny 2m-by-2m space full of Borat images and gangsta rap where he could unleash his creative wild child.
But a few days a week, Bjorn would play host to four people and serve them a menu carefully curated from what he had worked on. Small’s began with a four-person pizza omakase – a culinary concept that many thought a little outlandish, a little odd and a lot of fun. Along the way, Small’s evolved – as ideas do – into something a little bigger. And now a Small’s version 2 awaits.
Small's Wasabi Pea
Small’s used to be a tiny-ass room attached to Bjorn Shen’s flagship restaurant, Artichoke. Originally his office, it was converted into a studio for culinary research and development. Now it’s an entire tiny-ass flat, with the world’s best flatmates serving up fabulous eats and drinks a few days a week to the quick-fingered few who manage to book some time there. When Small’s is closed to public, Bjorn plays with his food, experimenting with things and ideas that get called oddball by some, genius by others.
Pizza omakase was an idea that Bjorn had when he realised that there was a large gap in the Singapore market for artisanal pizzas with creative toppings back in January 2020. Bjorn was too lazy to open a full-fledged restaurant, and he was worried that people may not have been fully receptive to anything much more than a thin-crust meat lovers.
Small's Mekajiki, Heart of Palm, Ankimo
So Bjorn started small, real small, 2m by 2m in area kinda small. And he called it Small's. If Bjorn was gonna do something new and risky, he wanted to do it in a tiny space where only hardcore foodies would get in, and he could properly explain myself and his intentions.
As some of our readers may already know, after witnessing the success of Small's, Bjorn decided that Small's would be much more than just a pizza omakase joint - it was to be a space of creativity, where he would eventually move on from pizza and start omakase-ing other things that had never been omakase-d before. Bjorn may or may not have thrown about ideas such as chicken nugget omakase and hotpot omakase.
It's never easy going where no one's gone before. You can't Google search for ideas. Oftentimes, there are no existing references. But despite those challenges, Bjorn is happy to announce Small's new concept - BREAD SUSHI. Yes, imagine a sushi bar where all the sushi you eat features raw, cooked, cured seafoods on bread - instead of sushi rice.
Small's Akami, Sambal Matah, Pickled Mango
As a natural evolution of Small's version 1 (pizza), Small's version 2's menu leverages off the dough making know-how. The breads that sit underneath those pieces of fish are made from high hydration, long-aged doughs just like that which Bjorn has been making all this time.
The bread is given textures and tastes with different cooking methods - high temperature baking, low temperature baking, binchotan grilling, deep frying, steaming - and each type of fish and/or seafood showcased are paired with a style of bread that best complements.
The menu is a tasting menu - or a DOUGHMAKASE if you will - with three snacks, 8-10 “bread-sushi”, one hotpot and two sweets. As an evolution to Small's version 1 where the menu was fixed for the month, Smalls version 2's menu is indicative, and subject to change on a daily basis so as to accommodate ingredient availability and new ideas.
Taking inspiration from Danish smørrebrød, Basque pinxtos and Italian crostini, one can expect more than just fish on bread - condiments and other preparations join the party to give diners that riot of flavours they expect from a meal at Small's.
One of the dishes on the opening menu is engawa (flounder fin) lightly seared, with a stir-fried green papaya salad - ripped straight from the playbook of Bjorn's Thai relatives - sitting atop a freshly charcoal grilled nugget of bread, and topped with a generous shaving of frozen ankimo - monkfish liver.
Small’s will accept reservations from 2 to 5 persons. A payment guarantee will be required upfront, and forfeits will be applied in the event of late cancellation or no-shows. Other terms and conditions regarding dietary restrictions, session timings etc will apply. All information about reservation availability, menus and terms and conditions will be published on either the website or the Instagram page.
a. 115 King Georges Avenue #02-02 Singapore, Singapore 208561
s. https://www.facebook.com/smalls.sg
w. www.bjornshen.com/smalls
