Dave Pynt – the art of the pivot

[SINGAPORE] For someone who keeps adding more and more food and beverage (F&B) projects to his portfolio, chef-restaurateur Dave Pynt has an exceedingly simple philosophy: “I want to do cool s*** with cool people,” he says in his trademark unfiltered manner.

It’s hard to keep track of what Pynt is up to besides running his thriving flagship barbecue eatery Burnt Ends and bakery in Dempsey Hill and Meatsmith in Telok Ayer. Besides consulting with the Waldorf Astoria hotel brand to open The Ledge by Dave Pynt in Ithaafushi Maldives (with a second one signed for its Bali property which opens in 2027), Pynt collaborated with luxury watchmaker Audemars Piguet (AP) to operate its first cafe in the world at Raffles Hotel, and opened a Burnt Ends bakery in Audi’s flagship showroom in Cross Street.

He is also currently in talks to open a restaurant with a fashion brand at its new flagship store. And hopefully by the first quarter of 2026, he will open his own brewery-pub at Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), serving pizza and his exclusive line of beer crafted onsite.

Not all his projects carry the Burnt Ends or his personal branding – his collaboration with AP, for example, is a white label project in that he acts as consultant and operator with no association with his name. It’s an arrangement he’s perfectly fine with because “I enjoy the partnership and the creative process and our focus is on giving them a really good product”.

He’s come a long way since 2013 when he answered a call from Unlisted Collection’s Loh Lik Peng to come to Singapore and open Burnt Ends.

It subsequently earned a Michelin star and was consistently rated as one of the most successful restaurants in Singapore.

But transitioning from chef to businessman has been an “extremely steep learning curve”, Pynt concedes. “The biggest thing is contracts. We didn’t really know how to deal with lawyers and if you don’t manage them properly their fees can shoot you off really quickly.”

But he had plenty of expert advice to help him through the months of negotiations with Waldorf Astoria, which involved many levels of approval, even for the Bali project. “Even though we already had the Maldives contract, this (Bali) one still took around eight or nine months.”

While he’s been happy with the opportunities that have come his way, Pynt says that his projects are on a “very case by case basis and we’re not necessarily hunting for expansions. If everything works out, great, but if it doesn’t, we’re very happy with what we’ve got.”

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For him, it’s all about relationship building and “doing the right thing by them and also for us”. For example, when Covid-19 struck, the Maldives restaurant had to be shut down. “We agreed on a “pause package” because we didn’t feel it was fair to put unnecessary costs on the hotel when they weren’t able to operate.”

It’s also the reason why, despite Burnt Ends’ success, he hasn’t parted with Unlisted Collection to strike out on his own. “Why do I want to f*** that up over a little bit of greed?” He says. “When we came to Singapore we had nothing, and Peng and our other partners took a very big risk on the (Burnt Ends) project and fully supported it. It’s done well and he’s allowed us to grow and been very supportive.”

For all his success with Burnt Ends, Pynt has also made his fair share of mistakes. The main one was trying unsuccessfully to grow the Meatsmith brand. Besides the main store in Telok Ayer, the group opened a branch in Little India just before Covid-19. As it was already not doing well before the pandemic, he decided to cut his losses and close it. “We tried to expand the brand but it didn’t really work.”

Now, his latest pet project is his brewery in RWS, which will be a 150-seat pub close to the Singapore Oceanarium, and house a 250-hectolitre brewing centre for large scale production and a 200-litre microbrewery for small-batch artisanal beers. 

“We’re going to have to invest a pretty significant sum but because of the lease terms and partnership rates that we’ve got with them, I’m hoping it can go well. With 19 million tourists a year going to RWS, can we attract a percentage of them? I’m pretty confident we can.”

F&B industry wise, Pynt expects things to get worse before they get better. “Spending power is down, yet there’s been a significant increase in outlets. Just this year alone there’s been a net growth of 400 establishments in six months, with no increase in tourists or population.”

As for his own group, “We’re not doing as well as we wanted… but we’re doing well enough that we’re not super worried.” And ultimately for him, it’s about doing what he loves, with the right people and keeping the fire going for as long as he can.