Heart to Hart

Whether at work or play, Norman Hartono has learnt that passion takes him wherever he desires.

- Alethia Tiang

IT’S HARD TO MISS Norman Hartono in a crowd. How can you when he flaunts a serious handlebar moustache? “I grew it out for Movember last year,” he explains with a laugh. “I held a competition among the Dancing Crab staff to grow the most impressive or longest moustache and the winner would get a prize from me. So I had to grow mine out too, since I was getting all my guys in on it.”

“Not many saw it all the way through. They’d grow it for two weeks then they’d shave. And people wonder why Asians can’t grow a moustache,” he says.

Rather than being content with being a hair above the rest, the third-generation restaurateur decided to see just how long he could go without shaving his upper lip. One month turned into three, four...and before long he had trained the whiskers into a full-on handlebar.

“And now I’m breaking stereotypes that Asians can’t grow a moustache,” he quips.

Granted, we’re talking facial hair, but it’s also a mark of Hartono’s determination and drive once he’s decided to see something through. It is this conviction that has seen the 28-year-old rise up the ranks of Tung Lok Group, a restaurant business founded by his grandfather, starting as a part-time waiter when he was 16. Looking back on his early experience, which included breaking his fair share of dishes and glasses, he says: “I learnt that the hard part is not about breaking things, it’s getting over the shock. I learned how to not freak out, stay calm and just do my job.”

But joining the business, was not something the family ever expected of him. Rather, he fell into it naturally.