Anyone who grew up in Singapore would know their green and white checkered tablecloth anywhere. You may even associate it with sizzling steaks and servers marching from table to table with gravy boats in hand. After all, Jack’s Place is nearly as old as Singapore.

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Before western-style restaurants were a dime a dozen, Jack’s Place was something of a luxury reserved for candlelit dinners and special occasions. Today, the steakhouse is a household name that requires no introduction. But what’s the backstory? Also, who’s Jack?

CNA Lifestyle spoke with Susan Say, the third child of Jack’s Place’s late founder; and his grandsons, Alvin Say and Jason Ong, to find out.

FROM MILITARY COOK BOY TO RESTAURANTEUR
“My father was a very simple man,” said Susan, 67, remembering her late father, Say Lip Hai. “He came from Hainan in China, and was not educated.” Say was a cook boy serving British troops when he first encountered western-style fare and learned to make roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

In 1967, he started Cola Restaurant in Sembawang. There, he served mostly Anzac and British troops who docked at a shipyard nearby. But, one day, a woman walked in and ordered the roast beef he perfected all those years ago. She fell in love with it at once. When her husband learned of it, he made Say a business proposal. The man’s name was Jack Joseph Hunt.

When Say came onboard Hunt’s pub along Killiney Road, he entrusted Cola Restaurant to Susan’s elder siblings. She was only 14 when she tagged along with her father to Jack’s Place. “In the olden days, we did everything from ordering to cashiering ourselves. We peeled prawns and potatoes in the kitchen. If the chef was not around, we would help cook too,” she recalled.

“OUR CHILDHOODS WERE VERY MUCH SPENT AT THE OUTLETS”
While Susan described her father to be a serious man of few words, his eldest grandson remembered otherwise. “Ah Gong to his grandchildren was very different from a father to Susan. Hers is stern, ours is nice, caring, and thoughtful,” Alvin said. Now the chief operating officer of JP Pepperdine, the 40-year-old fondly looked back on his childhood:

“On Fridays, the cousins would stay overnight so we could all go out with Ah Gong the next day. He would squeeze seven of us in his classic Volvo and take us to the McDonald’s at Serene Centre. They said that I am his favourite grandson, so they asked me to sit beside him. Then maybe Ah Gong will give us more pocket money.”

“He’s very generous,” Susan quipped. “Always give them pocket money. Quite a lot one.”