New Horse Noodles by 2 hawker brothers staying open after younger brother decides to keep it going

A pair of Singaporean brothers running a hawker stall in Chinatown Complex had earlier decided to shutter the business after just five months. Scott Lee, 29, and Troy Lee, 31, had quit their finance jobs to open the Singaporean-Malaysian yong tau foo stall. The impending closure announcement had come as a shock to some customers, Scott told Shin Min. Good news for those folks then, as "New Horse Noodles" will continue running, at least for now. The younger Lee surprised his customers by announcing that he had decided to resume business, albeit without his older brother. 70 hours a week Before becoming hawkers, the two owners of "New Horse Noodles" worked stable jobs in the finance industry. Scott was a fintech product manager while Troy was a stock trader, according to Lianhe Zaobao. The pair sold handmade Hakka yong tau foo, as well as Malaysian-style dry noodles. But the work turned out to be more tiring than the brothers had anticipated, with the first day of business attracting more customers than they were prepared for. An accumulation of daily tasks, such as washing hundreds of bowls a day, also began to wear them down. On top of that, they were making much less than they did previously despite working 70 hours a week,. "More effort, less pay," Troy described the experience. By August, the pair started considering shuttering the business. They had earlier made an announcement that their last day of business would be on Oct. 25 as they "did not wish to live this kind of life in the long term". Reopening On Oct. 23, Scott posted a video on the stall's Facebook page that he had decided to keep the stall running, though without his brother. He announced that he would hire a stall assistant in order to focus on serving customers. "We can't promise that we'll be here forever, so we'll just take it one month at a time lor," he said. The younger Lee added that he had received a lot of support from customers after his initial closing announcement. "I see this trade as something that is more than just food. I see it as I'm building relationships with all my customers, and that's the part I love the most." He resumed operations alone on Oct. 26, according to another Facebook post. On Oct. 27, he updated customers that the stall would be opening six days a week, with the exception of Fridays, instead of the previous five days per week. The change is to accommodate the higher costs of running the stall after hiring an assistant, he explained.