A New Tempo #5: A Phat Cat Collective Still Has Extra Lives To Weather The Storm

Phat Cats, are you okay? (Credit: NINETEEN80)

If you look at what these cool cats were up to pre-COVID, they were on a roll. The concept-driven venue owners from A Phat Cat Collective clearly know a thing or two about building slick nightlife brands fit for the front pages.

Gamers and ’80s geeks rejoiced in the neon-showered arcade-discotheque that is NINETEEN80, while pinball enthusiasts also got their bumps of nostalgia in sister outlet, Pinball Wizard. The former even got the scene chattering with a much-anticipated expansion, with talks of a new house-oriented club opening shortly after. Both institutions swiftly racked up high scores in the eyes of punters and casual bar patrons, and it was evident that the Phat Cats’ life bar was still in the green.

Hopefully, parties will no longer be a thing of the past in due time (Credit: NINETEEN80)

That was until COVID came to tilt the smooth-working machine, freezing the momentum of their businesses. Out of the clockwork and into the spike pits, A Phat Cat Collective – like many other companies in the club industry – now face a disaster that looks to be their toughest boss fight yet. How do you run a nightspot when clubs aren’t allowed to reopen?

In this edition of A New Tempo, Joshua Pillai from A Phat Cat Collective reveals how the team is coping with the circumstances, and assures that they still have a few more 1Ups in the bag.

“COVID-19 has really been a curveball for sure, and it has halted our momentum for our plans for the year. We were not able to open at all even before the Circuit Breaker when clubs were among the first to be mandated to close, and it looks like we are among the last to open. We had to transition our brands, NINETEEN80 and Pinball Wizard, to be completely ‘virtual’, and diversify our business activities in order to generate some revenue, practise more cash conservation and redeploy our team to help with our sister restaurants.”

“We had just expanded NINETEEN80 with a super sleek retro-wave new look and got to run for just a weekend before we had to close. We are looking forward to the day we’re able to have people check out the space. We also have a new house and electronic music club concept on its way, but we had to stop renovations midway and we’re waiting for the green light to resume renovations. We were also looking to bring the NINETEEN80 brand overseas, which will likely have to be shelved for a little longer.”

“We are lucky that we have a great support system with helpful landlords and business partners who believe in us to tide through this time. We have also been trying to reach out to our peers in the industry, and held a couple of online sharing sessions with fellow industry peers to see what we can do as community during this time.

The government has also been aware of the nightlife industry's struggles. As we wait for more information, we hope that there will be assistance and support given to us as we pivot our business.”

“Most communication happened virtually when the Circuit Breaker started, and we had to place more importance on providing the NINETEEN80 and Pinball Wizard experience and connecting with our guests online. We have been allowing the audience to engage with us virtually and yet feel transported to the same experience they feel at our club. Social media played a key role and we used various forms of events to reach out to them and try to generate some income. We are doing weekly DJ live-streaming sessions where we’ve built up a great online community, hosted trivia nights and even ’80s aerobics classes.”

You can still get your favourite signature cocktails from NINETEEN80 via delivery (Credit: NINETEEN80)

“We are also selling our own NINETEEN80 face masks in fun retro designs which are produced by the team. We’re introducing some new designs including a Space Invaders one! We also have some pretty great deals on our alcohol and cocktail deliveries. A Phat Cat Collective also launched a Mixcloud Selects page that people can subscribe to for curated mixes by our DJs and guests that will encompass music by NINETEEN80, Pinball Wizard and our upcoming house music concept, Rails. Lastly, our spaces are also available to rent for photoshoots and filmings, that would be perfect if you’re looking for cool, neon-lit, photogenic places for your personal/wedding/corporate shoots.

It’s a new playing field for sure, and the biggest strategy we learnt is that we have to be brave enough to step outside our comfort zone and expertise.”

Follow NINETEEN80 and Pinball Wizard for updates on how you can support their establishments.