City is set to embrace all booze
Even wine bars are pushing international boundaries. At RVLT, with its artfully unfinished look and exploratory wine selection, you can drink cult favourites such as the sparkling wines of the Loire’s Domaine Mosse or a light, dynamic red Poulsard from the Jura-a list that would be a sommelier favourite anywhere in New York or Los Angeles.
COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
Crackerjack is the newest venue from Proof & Co., a group that runs several Singapore bars and consults on other ambitious ventures in town. More significant, it acts as an importer for a remarkable array of boozy products and also trains bartenders on how to use them.
Case in point: One Saturday night, Kantono, the pioneer barman, led me to the group’s latest project. In a space they call Junior — an unmarked, 10-seat bar tucked behind Crackerjack — they’ve opened a six-month pop-up dubbed Norma. (Each pop-up at Junior has a different name.) Norma is an ode to agave, with drinks that focus on tequila, mescal and even lesser-known bottlings of raicilla, a herbaceous and earthy cousin to mescal that rarely makes it out of Oaxaca.
“No one in Singapore was asking for an agave bar,” says Kantono, sipping a mescal cocktail from a skull mug, surrounded by a crowd of restaurant industry drinkers. “No one here goes to Mexico, no one knows what mescal is. But there’s a sense of ‘screw it, let’s try it.’ This is supply-led. It’s not demand-led.”