Meet Aidan Sim, the Singaporean bar manager helming Prada’s first cocktail bar in Asia

It started with an Instagram message. “Mon Ami. Do you want a job?”

The missive came from Remy Savage, the visionary mixologist behind A Bar with Shapes for a Name (No.35 The World’s 50 Best Bars 2023) and Bar Nouveau in Paris, tapping Singaporean bartender Aidan Sim as Bar Manager for Mi Shang Prada Rong Zhai in Shanghai. Created in collaboration with renowned director Wong Kar Wai and housed in a historic villa, Prada’s first standalone fine dining space in Asia opened in March.

 For 32-year-old Sim, who had worked with Savage at London’s Shapes from 2022 to 2024, it was an easy yes: “It was Remy’s big project in Asia, and for him to come and ask me to lead it, to be the face of the bar, I couldn’t say no.”

Sim is a globally seasoned bartender who had cut his teeth at Bar Lotus in London as well as Singapore’s acclaimed destination bar Atlas. But Savage saw far more in him than technical skill.

“When you get to work together, you understand a lot about the other person,” says the 36-year-old Frenchman in an exclusive interview with The Peak Singapore in Shanghai. “At Shapes, Aidan wasn’t just an exemplary collaborator, he was bringing elements from his world – as an actor, for instance, he wanted to bring performance into the sequence of service.”

Savage, freshly named Prada’s Lead Mixologist on May 8, will be entrusting Mi Shang to Sim as he jets off to shape the Italian brand’s burgeoning cocktail empire. While Prada opened Bar Luce at arts venue Fondazione Prada in Milan in 2015, the Shanghai bar is the first with Savage’s creative fingerprint – a cocktail list artfully crafted with the weight of its historic setting. The Prada touches are suitably minimal, including custom-tailored Mandarin jackets donned by the bar team and glassware from the fashion house, nary a visible logo in sight.

On why his protégé is the right man to lead the bar, he says: “This is a long-term project – it’s relentless, daily work, and I think Aidan has, over the years, acquired the maturity to understand things don’t happen instantly and to constantly work towards the goal. Not everybody has this.”

Far rarer though, is the genuine warmth Sim brings to the role. In a venue steeped in Prada’s polish and glamour, he offers something disarmingly human – instinctive, unforced hospitality. “It’s more than a likable personality. We love him. My wife thinks he’s cool to hang out with,” Savage shares with clear affection. “Most days, I don’t pass the wife check.”

East meets West

Mi Shang, which means “enchanted by” in Chinese, is a portmanteau of Milan and Shanghai, encapsulating the venue’s East-meets-West identity. The inherent tension and harmony is something Sim is intimately familiar with. “I’ve always been in places where the two cultures blended,” he muses, citing his time at the now-defunct Yale-NUS College – liberal arts idealism meets Singaporean pragmatism – where he majored in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, as well as at Shapes, where he was the only Asian in a mostly-European bar team.

To Savage, that cultural fluidity is a strength. “We’re celebrating the idea of Milano and Shanghai,” he explains. “So to have Aidan, who understands Asian culture, who can speak the language, but also deliver a European experience as well as a Chinese experience, is cool.”

The duality also comes to life in the new cocktail menu, weaving together the layered history of the Rong Zhai the bar sits in with the traditions of classic Italian cocktail culture. 

A perfect example is the Blossom Negroni, where the Milanese icon is reimagined with autumn flowers and a subtle touch of white pepper, a spice beloved in Shanghainese cooking. “We also use huangjiu (traditional Chinese yellow wine) in the cocktail Sunburst,” adds Sim. It’s a reinterpretation of the sgroppino, a boozy sorbet-based drink from Venice. “We add the Longshan yellow wine and prosecco to a Chinese citrus gelato, and serve it in a Champagne coupe tableside.”

Early March saw Savage flying to Shanghai to find ways to alchemise two cultures and over a century of history into sixteen elegant drinks. “We had two months until the menu launch,” Sim recalls. “I knew Remy couldn’t be in Shanghai all the time, so after we spent a few days exploring the venue and working on the concept, it was on me to do all the groundwork – sourcing, R&D and getting the team on board.”

Challenges soon arose. They quickly realised half the ingredients Savage wanted in the original menu weren’t available in China. “We couldn’t get any Amaro Nonino because it’s not imported here. Ginger flower was also difficult to find, as was Viandox (a savoury French liquid seasoning),” lists Sim. He spent the next six weeks on intense research and development, altering the earlier formulations according to what the team could source locally.

Take The Grapevine, intended as a modern riff on Tom Collins. The refreshing highball-style drink originally featured rhubarb, a signature in its predecessor Pastel – the best-selling cocktail at Shapes. Sim reworked it as “more of a Tom Collins-Bellini hybrid” with honey peach and raspberry.

He was also instrumental in introducing the Baijiu Flight to the menu. “Baijiu is a historical Chinese spirit with thousands of years of history. I’ve been to about 15 bars in Shanghai, yet none of them served Baijiu neat. I was inspired by my time at Atlas, where we served flights of martinis and Champagnes, and thought the flight would be a cool way to introduce Baijiu in small portions to curious guests. Our Baijiu flight is a journey from antiquity to modernity, exploring how the tastes of Baijiu change over time.”

Sim, who sourced all the Chinese spirits on the menu, also uses Tabb – a more contemporary, lighter Baijiu – in the Wong Kar Wai-inspired Happy Together. It’s a subtle counterpoint to the fresh bittergourd and cucumber in the tequila-based cocktail. While the current menu remains focused on the Milan-Shanghai dialogue, his eyes light up when asked if there’s a chance that Singaporean flavours might show up in the future. “I think we always put a part of ourselves in what we do, and being Singaporean is part of my heritage. I love kaya; I think there should be a kaya butter cocktail.”

Setting the bar

The cocktail menu made its debut on May 8 at a festive launch party held at the heritage Shanghai mansion, welcoming over 250 guests, including Singaporean filmmaker Tan Pin Pin. The evening quietly marked a watershed moment for the global bar industry. Savage’s international role with the Prada Group likely represents the first time a globally recognised mixologist is leading a luxury fashion house’s bar programme. To many, it signals the fashion world’s growing ambition in expanding its cultural footprint through high-end mixology.

Before he jets off to his next project, I ask Savage if he had any pearls of wisdom for his trusted lieutenant. “It would be crazy for me to give him advice,” he remarks with his signature grin. You’re his mentor, I point out. “I love him very much, and I have 100% confidence in his ability. He just needs to be himself, keep a positive attitude and there’s nothing he won’t achieve here!”