Best selection of drams
Since he opened The Auld Alliance in January, French-born owner Emmanuel Dron has been busy tapping into his vast list of contacts from the past 13 years to collect some very fine drops of whisky from Scotland, Japan, the US and Ireland. Which explains the wall’s display of a thousand bottles. Still, if close to six hundred single-malt whiskies by the glass is not enough to entice you, the vintage champagne, rum and cognac list, including 40 types of absinthe, should do the trick. And if you really want to feel like a connoisseur of the club, the library room filled with grand leather couches will make you feel at home. Seems apt then, that you needn’t leave the couch for sustenance – food from Chijmes’ restaurants can be ordered and delivered to the bar at no extra cost.
#01-08 Chijmes, 30 Victoria St (6337 2201, www.facebook.com/TheAuldAlliance). MRT: City Hall. Mon-Thu 5pm-1am; Fri & Sat 5pm-2am. Drinks from $12. GW
Best upmarket cocktails
Of the many bars that have opened in the past year, Bar Stories earned a spot on our list for its customised drinks menu and stylish mixologists. Installed in a renovated shophouse on Haji Lane, Ethan Leong’s hotspot hits all the right notes from the moment you climb the stairs to the second floor. The bar itself is a recessed space that puts seated drinkers at eye level with its ’tenders, although the apron-clad barkeeps are not always confined to this wood-lined rectangular space. Based on your preferences, the bar-boys might suggest the Kyoho Martini ($25), a Japanese gin-based cocktail whose mix of fermented kyoho grape juice, lemon juice and sugar packs a knockout but tasty punch. The Scandinavian mid-century vintage furniture is the bar’s best feature: everything is sourced from A Thousand Tales, on the shophouse’s first floor, and available for purchase. 57A Haji Ln (6298 0838, www.athousandtales.com). MRT: Bugis. Mon-Sun 3pm-1am. Drinks $18++-$30++. AK
Swankiest party playground
From street level, the place doesn’t seem much more than an unassuming tea salon, but things start looking up the moment you step inside. The one-of-a-kind, cream-white cocktease of an interior is furnished with soft leather sofas and leopard-print stools slinking up to cork-topped tables. Chandeliers bathe the L-shaped room in a warm amber glow, and luxury cars start filling the parking spaces as hipsters rock up. At the bar, suavely tailored mixologists tempt with cocktails like a White Russian Flambé (coffee liqueur, vodka, frosted milk foam flambéed on top, $28). The upscale living-room ambience ensures a night of balmy cosiness without the posey artifice so endemic in this town. 51 Kreta Ayer Rd (6557 0538, www.drinkculture.com.sg). Outram Park. Mon, Tue & Thu 6pm-1am; Wed, Fri & Sat 6pm-2am. Cocktails $15-$28. JE
Best beer garden
Once a prime nightlife nexus, Mohamed Sultan’s now studded with coveted condos and hotels. But what good is a fancy ’hood without an equally great space in which to chill? Linda Ng’s outdoor watering hole promises a lazy kick-back vibe. The swings at the rear, for one, make for a quirky adult playpen. Meanwhile, the affordable eats run the gamut from Western (pizza, burgers) to Thai and Indian, which might explain partially the international crowd. The booze tips the balance: Japanese Baird beers go for $12 a pop, but don’t miss the array of 74 global boutique brews that was updated only last month (try Belgium’s knock-out Delirium Tremens, $17). Beer gardens aren’t easy to come by in this city where real-estate prices are so hiked up, and this year-old stripling running the length of a shophouse could easily have been built over, but we’re glad it has remained the outdoor, partially sheltered, various-tiered, patches-of-grass-in-the-back space. 18 Mohamed Sultan Rd (6235 4624, www.thefoundry.com.sg). Buses: 32, 54, 158, 195. Mon-Thu 4pm-midnight, Fri-Sun 11am-3am. Beers $10-$25. JE
Best colonial-class cocktails
This Duxton newbie is the brainchild of Beppe de Vito, who runs our favourite Italian, One Fullerton’s Forlino. It’s a smart bar sandwiched between a generously proportioned outdoor space and the retro-fitted, tile-floored dining room inside. While the kitchen dishes out anglocentric fare like Eccles cakes and fisherman’s pie, the bar’s liquid menu is a blend of tipples flavoured with Pimm’s, fancy cocktails and bottled brews ranging from Fuller’s London Pride and Brakspears Bitter to Westons Country Perry. Memorable recent drinks include the Jackson Punch ($13.50) – essentially a goldfish bowl on a thin stem, filled with a zingy citrus punch – and the Coolie’s Cup ($13.50), a hard-hitting rum-and-absinthe mix. 40 Duxton Hill (6866 1998, www.thejacksonplan.com). MRT: Outram Park. Bar hours Mon-Thu 11.30am-midnight; Fri 11.30am-1am; Sat 3pm-1am. Bottled ale and cider $13.95-$18.50. JE
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