We join the PML Culinary Experience, an exclusive supper club for Performance Motors Limited’s inner circle customers
Our Defender test car lumbers into the eerily hushed basement carpark at Performance Motors Limited (PML) after hours. This is a far cry from the familiar buzz of activity we are used to when we pick up or return demo cars during normal operation hours.
Instead of taking the lift directly to the “Performance Lounge” meeting point on the third floor, this writer rides the escalator up from the carpark to the second-floor sales reception, where the display cars stand guard like silent sentinels watching over all who enter their domain.
We skirt quickly past them (we were not quite ready to accidentally buy a M car) and take the escalator back down to the ground floor to take a sneak peek at Jiak Kim House’s dining setup around the massive bar counter (some say it is the largest of such counters among all the car dealers in Singapore) before taking the lift to the third floor.
Why the roundabout route? Well, it is not often that we get to visit the PML showroom in its powered-down state of intimate cosiness, especially with less than half the lights of the facility on.
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However, this is not our first time visiting PML’s “Performance Lounge”. It has been a real treat every time and our previous visits saw us fed cakes for afternoon tea and tasty Asian fare for breakfast.
This exclusive sanctuary (pictured above) is suspended above the second-floor showroom and is a haven from the hustle and bustle of the public showroom and cafe areas during business hours. It is reserved for PML’s special tier of luxury BMW model customers, with access to this rarefied section by facial recognition.
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The relaxed ambience is reminiscent of Singapore Airlines' top-tier “TPR” (The Private Room) lounge, where you order food and beverages off a menu for them to be served to your table.
On this occasion, the mingling session in the lounge is a preamble to the evening’s PML Culinary Experience collaboration with Jiak Kim House’s chef TQ (pictured above), which will take place at the ground floor bar counter.
In case you missed the memo, today’s car distributors are no longer in the business of selling cars, at least not the ones that operate in the loftier premium (and higher) segment, such as PML does.
These days, an owner of a GKL (short for Grand Klasse Luxury) BMW model looks beyond the car towards the ownership experience and community activities.
After all, a car is merely a material object (and something that the brand has perfected), so it is up to PML’s curated activities to engage and inject an emotional element for its customers’ experience, especially in the wake of its revamped Retail.Next showroom.
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PML’s key objective is to differentiate itself from its rivals, not just against the other luxury brand dealers, but also the second BMW dealer in Singapore.
Taking possession of the car is just the start of the journey with PML because it opens up doorways to exceptional and immersive experiences that see you connect with like-minded individuals, and this includes scoring a coveted spot in its omakase dining experience.
Launched in January, the PML Culinary Experience is a by-invitation-only dining affair that takes place once a month for a very select group of approximately 14 diners, with each event a collaboration between PML and one of Singapore’s leading chefs and restaurants.
The dining experience is structured around an omakase format, with diners leaving everything in the hands of the chef.
By this same token, PML’s customers also maintain the same faith in the dealer’s ability to deliver an exceptional ownership experience, which is tailored to their lifestyle preferences.
Lawrence Tan (pictured above), managing director of PML, says: “The omakase PML Culinary Experience is a spin-off from the Curated Breakfast. When we transformed our showroom into a BMW Retail. Next lifestyle hub, we wanted the cafe to be its heart, because we started by serving book-the-cook-style Curated Breakfast.”
He continues, “And then we thought, now that we have this sort of setup, why not introduce something more intimate? Using the same setting, we then created the signature PML Culinary Experience, which is exclusive for PML’s top customers, but with a very different ambience, where the cafe-like hustle-bustle of the day makes way for a different atmosphere at dinner-time.”
For these “supper club” omakase dinners, the counter area is magically transformed into an exquisite dining space, a marked and magical departure from the informal atmosphere during business hours. (pictured above: writer's photo)
According to Tan, it is all about the evolution of ideas, all of which is centred around positioning PML’s Retail.Next showroom as a lifestyle hub of activity for its customers. (pictured above is the cafe counter during normal working hours)
Tan rationalises ramping up PML’s customer experience: “Buying a car in Singapore is not just about ownership, because the rest of the owner’s interaction with PML matters too, although it will take some time for people to appreciate this. However, I don’t have a playbook or answer key for this and the initiatives evolve depending on customers’ needs and response. We will keep evolving based on feedback from both our employees as well as the customers.”
This is chef TQ’s (of Jiak Kim House) second PML Culinary Experience outing (he kickstarted the first one in January), with other culinary luminaries over the past few months, including chef Gabriel Low (Shoukouwa Shinjidai) and chef Teow Yeow Siang (3 Embers).
Thanks to the convivial atmosphere, there’s a lot more depth to these supper clubs than just the epicurean element, which is in keeping with PML’s activations to add that sweet-savoury dimension to the car ownership experience for GKL owners and BMW Excellence Club members.
These small, intimate groups strengthen the community and relationships, and provide an opportunity for owners to interact between themselves, as well as engage with the PML reps and management in an informal setting.
Such informal dialogue sessions open up invaluable channels of communication between the authorised dealer and its owners.
Apart from golf, food has been one of PML’s major touchpoints with which it can engage its BMW community.
Apart from the signature PML Culinary Experience, other dining initiatives have been cascaded to the greater BMW owner audience.
PML also offers a Curated Breakfast (pictured above) on pre-order for service bookings, as well as a Grab & Go Breakfast for those in a rush and can only find the time to drop off their cars.
“PML is not in the business of selling and servicing cars. We’re in the people business, and don’t forget that there are two parties in ‘people’, PML’s staff and the customers, and both are equally deserving of recognition,” says Tan, as he puts the finishing touches on our final course (dessert of course!) for the evening.
