Bar scene stalwart Atlas pays homage to 1920s cocktail craft
Classics are revisited via once-groundbreaking techniques from the golden age of drinking
A FIXTURE of Singapore’s craft cocktail scene, a regular on The World’s 50 Best Bars List and housed within an iconic Art Deco building, ginfocused bar Atlas needs little introduction.
Yet this bar scene stalwart is not resting on its laurels. It launched a new menu this March, “Preservation of Fire”, which draws inspiration from a saying by composer Gustav Mahler: “Tradition is not the worship of ashes, but the preservation of fire.”
Lidiyanah Keller, Atlas’ beverage director, described the menu as a homage to the cocktail revival of the 1920s.
In that, the menu is right in line with Atlas’ aesthetic and philosophy. Housed in the grand lobby of Parkview Square – itself a modern tribute to the 1920s Art Deco style – Atlas evokes the opulence of the Roaring Twenties in its velvet armchairs, golden statues and an eightmetre-tall gin tower of over 1,300 bottles.
The new menu has four sections, each representing a groundbreaking technique that emerged during this golden era of drinking: carbonation, temperature, washing and infusion. Each section, in turn, has one cocktail each from four different styles: martini, champagne-based, sour and Old Fashioned.
“My idea for this menu is to inspire the current generation of bartenders to create their own techniques for the next generation,” said Keller. “We haven’t really seen a lot of groundbreaking techniques being invented.”
Keller began at Atlas as a barista in 2017, when the bar opened. When an opportunity opened up in the bartending team, she made the switch, and had her first chance to put a drink on the menu in 2019.
“When you’re bartending, you get to infuse a bit of your personality into your craft,” she noted. She has since overseen the design of two full menus, including the current one.
It takes about 10 months to create a menu, with two-fifths of the current menu contributed by her team.
“I have a document that lists out the kind of styles, flavour profiles and number of ingredients I look for, then I assign that specific drink to a team member,” Keller explained.
One of her top picks on the new menu is the Silver Bullet, a lighter take on the storied Vesper Martini made famous by fictional spy James Bond. It combines vodka and gin with the floral complexities of rose verjus and ylang-ylang water. “I have a soft spot for martinis. For every menu, I assign myself a martini to design because I love to push the envelope on how a martini could be made.”
Part of the “temperature” selection, the Silver Bullet embodies her ideal martini: almost frozen, served straight out of the freezer in a frozen glass. Even the grape that garnishes it is frozen.
Another favourite is the Echo of Eras, a creamy twist on the sour that Keller described as “luscious and decadent”.
Featured in the “infusion” section, it balances the earthy, savoury aroma of sherry and mezcal with the freshness of fig infusion and elderflower, topped with the rich nuttiness of almond and cream. “I don’t want people to have the impression that Atlas only serves gin cocktails. Although the menu is 60 to 70 per cent gin-based, I include every other spirit that’s available,” said Keller.
The new menu will run for a year, with conceptualisation for the next menu already underway. In a few months’ time, Atlas will also launch an exclusive own-branded gin, which is already being used in drinks such as the longtime signature Atlas Martini.