Wanyu Bradley will always remember the first time she tried grits — the very dish that inspired her to open her new restaurant, Nitty Gritty.
The 38-year-old Singaporean was in Detroit visiting family and friends in 2022 after she got married to her husband, Matthew Bradley, 35, who is a Permanent Resident here.
After messing up their meet-up dates, she, Matthew, and a friend frantically settled on a restaurant that sold grits, which for the uninitiated, is an American dish made from ground corn boiled to a porridge-like consistency.
Their friend recommended that Wanyu try the shrimp and grits, which she had never heard of before prior to visiting the US.
“The food came and I ate it. And I was like woah. My mind was blown. It was so flavourful,” Wanyu told AsiaOne when we visited the restaurant, a short walk from Outram Park MRT station.
After that fateful meal, Wanyu couldn’t get enough of grits.
“It became this thing where I would go to any restaurant and order grits because I loved it so much,” she confessed.
“Matthew’s mum started cooking it for us as well. She was so confused [about] why I liked it, because it is like rice to them.”
A trip to Chicago in 2023 was what inspired Wanyu and Matthew to set up an eatery in Singapore selling American-Singaporean soul food.
Wanyu had once again been eating a plate of grits when she and Matthew came up with the name Nitty Gritty.
While Nitty Gritty represents the main dish at their restaurant, it also reflects the details in the food and atmosphere, which Matthew describes as “home on a plate”.
“Our slogan is ‘love is in the details’, so we try to put that in our food and restaurant,” explained Matthew.
Opening a restaurant wasn’t a new idea as the couple had been dabbling with the idea of “setting up something” for a while.
“We just thought there is a gap in Singapore’s market with regards to American food,” Wanyu said, adding that when it comes to American food, most people usually think of burgers, fries and pizza.
“The US I feel it’s actually a lot like Singapore. It’s a huge melting pot of different cultures, different flavours.”
The birth of Nitty Gritty
The couple did not have any experience in running a restaurant prior to setting up Nitty Gritty.
Wanyu was both a watch photographer and the owner of an agency, while Matthew did market research at American media audience measurement firm Nielsen and was a TasteHunter for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
With help from one of their friends from the US, who connected them with investors, they managed to secure enough money to open the business.
From July to August 2024, they hunted high and low for a place to call home.
All along, they had wanted something around Chinatown because of the memories they had associated with the area — Wanyu used to attend a dance studio nearby when she was a child and Matthew had rented homes at Dorsett Singapore, Upper Cross Street and Sago Lane for three years when he first came to Singapore.
The couple viewed more than 40 potential places before settling on their current unit at Outram Park, which is located on the ground floor of a cosy shophouse.
In October 2024, they started renovations and after some delays, were able to open on Jan 19 this year.
In total, including renovations, kitchen equipment and ingredients, the couple spent around $100,000.
Walking into Nitty Gritty feels like stepping into someone’s home and that was the exact vibe that Matthew and Wanyu were going for.
The restaurant is decked out in earthy tones of yellow, orange and brown — similar to the colour palette of grits — and the yellow lamps dangling from the ceiling bathes the space in a bright, warm light.
Scattered across the plush sofa seats are soft pillows and on the tables are colourful crochet coasters that Wanyu’s mother handmade just for Nitty Gritty (these are available for sale, too).
A wall towards the back of the restaurant, which the couple fondly call “The Grit Wall”, is plastered with framed photos of their family and friends.
“We wanted the place to be happy and cheery,” said Wanyu, who shared that her mother had previously pointed out that dark restaurants can be intimidating.
“We didn’t want something moody because we want people to feel welcome.”
As of now, the Nitty Gritty team is pretty small and consists of Wanyu, Matthew, a sous chef, a few part-timers and their front-of-house, Ben.
Fun fact — Ben, who is Singaporean, became friends with Matthew when they studied together in Renaissance High School in Detroit, which they graduated from in 2008. He was also one of Matthew’s first few friends when Matthew moved to Singapore.
When Ben heard that the couple were thinking of starting a restaurant, he offered to help and has been with them since day one.
Recipes from the heart
Though this is his first F&B venture, Matthew had spent a lot of time in the kitchen with his mum as a child.
“I cooked my whole life. My mum is a cook,” he shared.
As they lived in Detroit, they had plenty of soul food. Matthew pointed out that many people confuse soul food with Southern food but while soul food stems from Southern food, it isn’t the same thing.
“A lot of the different dishes are similar but not exactly the same,” he said.
He explained that soul food is the ethnic cuisine of the African Americans who originated in the South of America and it spread as they migrated throughout the US.
At Nitty Gritty, Matthew and Wanyu serve American soul food with a Singapore twist.
It isn’t just a marriage of different cuisines — it represents Matthew and Wanyu’s interracial relationship and their journey together as a couple.
And all the dishes on their carefully curated menu have its own interesting backstory.
“The menu is basically a reflection of us,” said Matthew.
For instance, Matthew created Smoked Deboned Frog Leg Grits ($23) when his mother-in-law fell sick and needed to go for surgery.
As she was diabetic, she had to control her starch intake and thanks to its low glycemic levels, grits were a good carbohydrate for her diet.
Adding frog legs to the dish came about when the family realised that many protein options were out of the question.
“Being Chinese, we have a lot of restrictions when we have the flu; and before an operation, one can’t eat chicken,” explained Wanyu.
Her mother also doesn’t eat beef and Matthew was allergic to pork, so they weren’t left with many options.
After doing some thinking, Wanyu’s mother remembered how she would cook frog leg porridge for Wanyu when she was a child and realised that they could try incorporating that with grits.
So, Matthew bought some frog legs and disappeared into the kitchen for four to five hours.
“He came back with this smoky dish that we were so amazed by and we decided to put it into the menu because it’s something that was really different,” said Wanyu.
Hainanese Chicken Grits ($19) was inspired from several experiences.
Apart from often enjoying chicken rice with Wanyu, Matthew also enjoyed a reimagined version of it at Michelin-starred Restaurant Labyrinth back when he was a TasteHunter for The World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Other meaningful dishes are Momma’s Baked Mac & Cheese ($15), one of Matthew’s personal favourites.
“Growing up, making mac and cheese was her way of showing love to us. She worked five days a week, and on the weekend she will take time to make food for all seven of us,” he reminisced.
“She wouldn’t just make [it sloppy], she would put a lot of effort into it.”
While recreating the mac and cheese for Nitty Gritty’s menu, Matthew had to do so from memory and tried his best to make it as close to what his mother’s version tasted like.
“A lot of the menu items are an embodiment of what I ate growing up,” he said.
“We tried to elevate these dishes but also make them recognisable.”
The star of the menu — which was also the only dish I tried — was the Nitty Gritty Shrimp & Grits ($23), inspired by the first plate of grits that Wanyu fell in love with back in Detroit.
While the recipe is somewhat similar to what one can find in the US, Matthew has added a few touches to make this dish his own.
For instance, the addition of baby nai bai (milk cabbage), which are torched till caramelised.
To add a spicy kick, there’s also a side of chilli crisps.
Apart from the dishes, Matthew and Wanyu make it a point to prepare all their beverages in-house from scratch — except for coffee — so none of their products have any preservatives or artificial colours or flavours.
For instance the Sparkling Apple Cream Cider ($9) is made from real apples that the team manually turn into pulp.
“Essentially, we want our food to not just be another mass-produced product,” said Matthew. “Because if it’s the same as a canned drink then why are we doing it?”
Despite all the delicious dishes that are already on the menu, the couple are still innovating and coming up with new creations.
One example is asam pedas grits with a twist, inspired by Ben’s favourite local dish. This will feature fried okra and pan-seared salmon.
They’re also toying with the idea of creating laksa and bak kut teh grits.
Despite now having to work with grits almost every single day, Wanyu is not sick of it.
Once, while Matthew was cooking it, he told her: “You said you like grits, right? Now you have no choice.”
But she has absolutely no regrets.
“It’s true, but I love grits so it’s okay,” she said with a laugh.
Address: 21 Teo Hong Rd, #01-01, Singapore 088331
Opening hours: Wednesdays to Saturdays, Mondays, 11am to 9pm
Sundays, 12pm to 9pm
Closed on Tuesdays
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melissateo@asiaone.com
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