Best known for their Singaporean street food and Southeast Asian vibe, Satay Brothers have also made their mark by supporting one of the hardest working members of their communities: healthcare workers. In 2016, the Kim Jen Ming location was launched on the McGill University Health Centre’s Glen site and was inspired by their mother’s hard work and germany whatsapp number dedication as a nurse. For the past six years, the Cantine Satay brothers have been redefining the famous concept of hospital food with Southeast Asian delights like papaya salad, rice rolls and pandan cake.
Through hard work, a strong connection to their roots and dedication to their craft, this family business has been a constant source of good food and good vibes to a community that needed it most.
We spoke with co-owner Alex Winnicki to learn more about this Southeast Asian success story.
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Tell us how it all started. How did the Satay Brothers come to be?
It was 2010 and we grew up in Saint-Henri. I had already been working at the Atwater Market for years and my brother had also worked at various markets. At the time, we were studying and working in different fields, but we always came back to work at the market. It was at that time that the market started to propose the idea of a food court. One of the people who wanted to rent the place backed out at the last second and we had the opportunity to set up a kind of stand, like you find a lot in Asia. It was a kind of outdoor grocery store.
We first set up shop at the Atwater Market and we had four or five items on the menu. That's kind of where it all started. There's a lot of foot traffic at the market and we were doing something completely different, so we got a lot of free press and positive reviews from customers.
This sounds incredible. Where did the concept originally come from?
Our mother was Singaporean, but we could never find Singaporean food in Montreal growing up. It was an underrepresented food culture. We even had a hard time finding Southeast Asian food in general. And that's kind of where the idea came from. We grew up in Singapore, definitely influenced by my mother, but also very Montreal. We've always been very attached to the food culture and we also wanted to bring something different.
So how did you grow from your market stall?
We had a production kitchen on Rue Saint-Jacques where we prepared food and brought it to the market. In fact, we cooked in the evening and prepared other dishes for the next day. At the end of the summer season, we opened the production kitchen for our customers. We had about 18 seats inside and we stayed there for a few years. Because of our small capacity, we had queues all the time and it was difficult to prepare enough food for everyone. Which, in the end, is a happy problem.
About seven years ago, we started building our space on Notre Dame Street. We got a lease and it was a lot bigger than the previous one. We built the restaurant with a professional kitchen and that's where we've been working for the last six or seven years and that's where all of our food comes from. We currently have our Atwater Market location, the hospital location and our flagship location on Notre Dame Street and everything is cooked by the same people at the restaurant whether you eat at one location or the other.