Inspired by tong shui, sake, and martinis, this new wave of Singapore cocktail bars is crafting more intentional drinking experiences

By early 2026, it was clear that Singapore’s once-vibrant cocktail scene was dimming. Following a brutal year marked by high-profile bar closures, including Tippling Club and Smoke & Mirrors, and compounded by a diminished showing on Asia’s 50 Best Bars list, the industry seemed to nurse a collective hangover.

For a while, shophouses remained empty; plucky newcomers like Casper and Confession Room faded away in mere months. 

Yet, the city now stands on the precipice of a reawakening, with several cocktail bars opening over the past four months. The revival is driven by a wave of new, independent bar owners — many of whom worked in well-known establishments. They are injecting the scene with a vital dose of energy and rewriting the playbook along the way. 

Some are eschewing the traditional cocktail enclaves in favour of more unexpected neighbourhoods. Case in point: MSCHV on Lavender Street, which officially debuted in June. Abutting a HDB flat and flanked by a backpacker’s hostel, it’s not where you’d expect to find a quality cocktail bar. 

But for co-founder Mark Ng, the former bar manager at The House Bar, the move was tactical — taking over the existing shophouse space meant a drastically lower upfront capital outlay. “In 2025, the main problem was the cost of operations going crazy — rents were almost double, and stocks were expensive or hard to find,” explains the 32-year-old.

Step into MSCHV and you’ll find a retro-stylised bar with a taut eight-drink menu inflected with tong shui flavours. Like the TCM Sour, which incorporates monk fruit, pu-erh tea, and a Pei Pa Kao cherry.

Just around the corner in the historic Kampong Glam, a similar bartender-turned-owner story is unfolding at Players Table. Co-founded by Marcus Liow, an experienced bartender who honed his craft at Antidote, Barbary Coast, and MOGA, it’s a venue shaped by financial realities. 

Realising the potential of the underutilised kitchen space at his father’s taproom WitBier, Liow converted it into an atmospheric speakeasy, sidestepping the clichéd faux storefronts that plague bars these days. 

The menu, designed with bar manager Jasper Tan, is intentionally pared-back, focused on flavours rather than performative complexity. It’s a direct response to the creative compromises he faced at previous roles. 

The constant pushback from management over his bar programme was especially challenging, Liow shares, “I was often pushed to add unnecessary garnishes just to make a drink look prettier for content.”

The disconnect between corporate and the bar team’s priorities is quite common, he remarks, “especially when decisions are made by people who are not involved in the day-to-day operations.”

Independent streak

Bar Middle’s founder and head bartender, Gavin Teverasan, experienced a similarly frustrating push-and-pull during his stint at MOGA. “I was getting tired of executing other people’s visions, especially directions I know won’t work, because I’ve been in this line longer than some of the management staff,” the first-time bar owner admits. 

“They hired me because they wanted a ‘50 Best’ bar. If you want to get into that universe, you have to follow the playbook. Instead, they constantly gave me directions that went against the very goals they wanted to achieve, leaving me stuck in a constant back-and-forth.” 

For Taiwan-born Teverasan, the last straw came during a guest shift in Wuhan, where a customer’s offhanded reference to MOGA as a restaurant made him realise the two years he’d spent trying to establish the venue as a cocktail destination had been undone.

It was the push he needed to pursue a lifelong dream of running his own bar. On May 28, Bar Middle opened on Hongkong Street. The elegant bar combines Japanese precision with American-style conviviality, with bar bites that nod to his Taiwanese heritage.

His cocktails use just six ingredients; a restraint which shines in the Gibson-esque It’s Just Negi, an artfully balanced and deliciously umami tipple.

Encouraging engagement

While Bar Middle pays respectful homage to Japanese-inflected mixology, the soon-to-open Your Mother’s House at Keong Saik Road playfully proposes a more irreverent, unconventional experience.

Headed by first-time bar owners Shaheera Rahman and Bryan Bonifacio, formerly Employees Only Singapore’s restaurant manager and bar manager, respectively, the bar will be styled as a living room and kitchen with communal seating to encourage conversations between friends and strangers alike.

Taking over the space from No Sleep Club, they kept structural changes minimal. However, “one non-negotiable design choice was removing the traditional back bar,” reveals Bonifacio. ”Most cocktail bars proudly display bottles, but for Your Mother’s House, we wanted guests to feel like they were in someone’s home rather than a bar.” 

Unconventionally, the duo organised a series of pop-ups in different bars to test the concept before launch. “The pop-ups were just as much about building relationships as they were about testing our cocktails,” says Shaheera. 

“It also allowed us to introduce Your Mother’s House organically, rather than waiting until opening day for people to discover us. From an operational standpoint, it was incredibly valuable. Every venue works differently, so it forces us to think on our feet and adapt quickly. More importantly, we observed how guests naturally interacted with the concept. We paid attention to where conversations started, which drinks people came back for, and whether the atmosphere we wanted to create actually translated. Those lessons have shaped how we’ll run YMH when we open.” 

Something to look forward to: “Most of our drinks are served tableside,” proclaims Bonifacio, including the Rizz, a Caesar Ritz-Sgroppino hybrid, with gin, mint sorbet, and prosecco.  

Sake & martinis 

Also innovating in the cocktail space is Braveheart Sake Originals, billed as Singapore’s first sake-cocktail bar. Founded by James Li and Ong Jun Quan, the Tanjong Pagar bar specialises in experimental, sake-led creations like Lager — a clever, trompe l’oeil cocktail, made with hops-infused sake, but disguised as a pint. 

Such a niche concept bar in this climate seems risky, I say. “Sure!” admits Ong, who is an International Kikisakeshi, or certified sake sommelier. “But sameness could be an even greater risk. As consumers become more deliberate about where and how they spend every dollar and hour, distinctiveness gives us an advantage. It gives Braveheart a raison d’être — a specific reason for people to choose us.”

It’s a philosophy that industry veteran Dario Knox echoes with particular emphasis. Modern cocktail bars can no longer depend on a copy-and-paste template; they must carve out a crystal-clear identity. “It’s a concept bar, which I think is what we lack in Singapore,” declares the 41-year-old Italian of his newest bar, The Singapore Martini Club, at Orchard Rendezvous Hotel. 

Inspired by the golden age of luxury train travel, the bar offers over 50 distinct martini expressions, including exclusive creations such as the Sub-Zero Dry Martini, claimed to be the coldest and smoothest ever made. 

On why he wanted to open a martini bar, the self-confessed cocktail nerd enthuses, “Because martinis are due for a comeback! And nobody paid attention, because they’re all busy with smoke and mirrors, creating the new ‘groundbreaking’ thing. A martini is simple, but simple and easy are different things. Doing something simple well is tough. There’s nothing to hide behind.”

That Singapore hadn’t had a bar dedicated to all things martini since No.5 Emerald Hill and Martini Bar at Grand Hyatt was a surprise to Knox, who looked to cocktail master Javier De Las Muelas’s legendary Dry Martini in Barcelona for reference. With The Singapore Martini Club, he’s keeping the legacy of a timeless classic alive.

Just down the road, you can now have martinis at the cinema too. Discover Centro Cocktail Bar, perched on the sixth floor of the newly refurbished Shaw Lido. Co-created with Wild Honey’s Stephanie Hancock and Guy Wachs, the sleek space presents a sophisticated upgrade to movie night. 

“We wanted to create a proper cocktail bar for the Orchard Road area with an outside-of-the- hotel experience,” says the duo. “And one built on the romance of the movie-going experience at the iconic Shaw Lido.” Helmed by head bartender Virat Jha (formerly of Ida’s Bar and The St. Regis Bar), the bar offers well-crafted, cinematically themed signatures like the refreshing gin-based Director’s Cut as well as classic cocktails.

This recent run of bar openings reveals a collective shift in mindset amongst the new guard. Unwilling to play it safe, they venture out into the unfamiliar to carve out their own niches.

“Because consumers are highly intentional now, legacy bars built for a different era or past consumer trends are no longer getting the same attention,” says Chai Karim, principal of Gaia Group, the team behind newly opened Bar Kap.

“They look for a clear brand story, a distinct value proposition, and a clear understanding of how a venue differs from the bar next door. In this climate, generic, cookie-cutter bars will struggle to survive,” she adds. 

Bastien Renard, the French designer and co-founder of cocktail playground Hi Stranger, sees it as an evolution. “The culture is getting there, so people are more and more daring,” he observes. “It inspires entrepreneurship in the cocktail industry. While the scene is growing, you rely on institutions at the beginning, but when it matures, everybody wants to do their own thing.”