Shaun Chen, Who Doesn’t Drink, Is Now The Towkay Of A Whiskey Bar At The Heeren

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We won’t fault you if you had no idea that Mediacorp actor Shaun Chen, 44, is now the towkay of The Gold Club, a 1,003 sq ft bar in Orchard’s The Heeren.

After all, save for a very discreet Instagram Story repost of the bar’s soft launch in early-July this year, Shaun hasn’t really posted about the bar.

So we took matters in our own hands to find out more, with the actor, who is starring in Mediacorp long-form drama My One and Only, sharing more with 8days.sg through a call.

As it turns out, the bar has five ‘shareholders’ — Shaun, as well as four other friends. He chuckles that there’s a “major shareholder”, and that he’s merely a “small shareholder”.

“The bar seats about 30 to 40 people, but it’ll be a little packed at 40 pax. We have two VIP rooms, and there’s a sound system inside,” Shaun shares.

Though he declines to divulge how much he personally invested into the bar, he muses that the total sum spent to set up the bar is “about six figures lor”.

So why start a bar, especially when Shaun doesn’t even drink?

“Why ah? ‘Cos a couple of my buddies, my [business] partners, we’ve been talking about wanting to hold meetings, to gather and chat. We were thinking about where we could meet, and if it’s somewhere like a coffeeshop, it’ll be too crowded and noisy. So why not we open a bar for us good friends and our friends to gather?” Shaun tells us.

“It just so happened that a friend of mine likes to drink whiskey, and some of them network at whiskey bars too, so they have connections there. So our bar came to life from there,” he added.

Though the bar’s website states that it’s a place for “members only”, Shaun says it’s open to the public. Of course, it’s “cheaper” to drink there if you’re a member.

There are three membership tiers, priced from S$1,777 to S$14,500. Perks for top tier members include getting to book the entire bar once every month.

“We have different types of alcohol, and we’re slowly adding to the list, it depends on what our customers ask for. We specialise in whiskey though. We only have finger food like cold cuts, cheese and fruit platters, but if you want to get food with your drinks, we can tapow food up from the restaurant downstairs,” he shared.

As for Shaun’s alcohol-free ways, he says: “It’s strange, right? But it just happened that we really wanted a place to meet, and some of us have experience in [related businesses], so we decided to open this bar.”

He goes on to explain with a chuckle: “Actually, it’s not that weird [that I don’t drink]. For example, if you’re a chef, you won’t [always] eat the food that you cook, right? And for us actors, sometimes, we won’t watch the shows that we act in as well.”

If you’re curious, Shaun gets coffee whenever he goes to the bar, and there’s a coffee machine there just for him.

But if you’re looking to spot the actor there, chances will, unfortunately, be real slim. Shaun shares that he “doesn’t go over frequently”, and that he mainly comes down when his good friends want to chill and chat over some whiskey (or coffee).

The Gold Club is at 260 Orchard Rd, #05-04 The Heeren, Singapore 238855. Open from Mon – Sat 3:30pm – 12 am. Website: https://goldclub.sg/

Also catch Shaun in My One and Only here and below:  

Photos: Shaun Chen, The Gold Club