Those Endless Singaporean Nights
It started as a normal Wednesday at work. You know, with going through emails, doing some work here and there, looking forward to lunch because you are looking forward to trying something new, then back to work, cup of coffee to keep yourself awake, maybe another, and another, and then your co-workers want to take you to a place to try out a drink. Bingo. I should have known that would light the fuse.
But, “Oh, it’s where they invented the Singapore Sling.”
The what?
“You gotta try it. And it’s at a beautiful hotel, the Raffles Hotel.”
Raffles what?
“It’s where the drink was invented.”
O…kay?
So this was a part of history I never knew and if you know my friends, a kind of prank to get me to go to the seediest of bars. I was imagining a dark place where transvestite dominatrix would coral the patrons together, handing out raffle tickets, and the winner gets strapped into a sling for some crowd pleasing humiliation. Boy can my imagination go crazy. To the delightful contrary it was nothing like that. All but for walking on nuts… peanuts, err peanut shells. The bar felt very rustic, where you can sit around in fancy wooden chairs and crack open peanuts while discarding the shells on the ground. Colonial maybe? Like the hotel it was nestled in. The whole place felt like they spent every day restoring everything from the garden, the spiral wooden stairwell, the bar, and even the bamboo fan system that did nothing more than dance than to keep us cool.
Didn’t matter, this was only one of the five places we went to. I’m not going to write about them because I the ordering was somewhat messed up in my head and my memory was clouded, but I have pictures!
- Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel
- Mad Men Attic Bar
- The Spiffy Dapper
- Crazy Elephant
- Dream (a club and I was the crazy old man yelling at the speakers)
Oh, as for the Singapore Sling. Way overpriced, much more than the already inflated drink prices around Singapore. We also fell for the big advertisement prices. You can get the smaller version drinks if you decide to actually read it. Rookie mistake.
$5.50SGD
Very impressive hotel. Once inside it’s easy to get lost. There’s plenty of shops to keep you distracted. I’m pretty sure you’ll find some tourist in the shop that’s been lost and forgotten for months.
So, what does paying more than twenty bucks get you? A fruity cocktail that tastes sorta like a pina colada. Sorry, I never heard of this drink and will never have it again unless I was on a beach. I guess it’s like going to Puerto Rico and having a pina colada. Yeah, sure it was made there, but you still don’t need to drink it there. Especially not at these prices. $45SGD (included the beef satay)
As I mentioned, this was well maintained. A place like this back in SF would be chipped and filled with graffiti.
Here are the endless and free supply of peanuts for your enjoyment. We were constantly occupying our hands while we talked. If I had to come back to this place, I’d order some scotch and sit back and relax.
Pretty good stuff, but I expected less paying as much as I did. This came with the Singapore Sling. Nicely charred to bring in some smokiness. Always good when you’re having this with beer, not with some cocktail. $45SGD (happy hour price with the drink)
A night around this area is much more chill than Clark Quay. It’s more restaurants and less clubby than it’s nearby neighbor. We were only here for a short period of time for Spiffy Dapper.
I can’t describe this taste, because it all intermixed with the other drinks I had that night. But I knew it was pretty good, and strong. If you find yourself here, you’ll just have to show this picture to the bartender. He’ll know.
This was actually a pretty cool bar with a pretty cool band. My friend called it a blues bar, but the music wasn’t quite blues in my book. It was a little upbeat and the guitar riffs were edge of your seat engaging.