Singapore Bar Awards 2015: The results are in!
As an offshoot of the first Singapore Cocktail Week, the second Singapore Bar Awards winners were announced on 8 March at The Refinery.
Launched last year by industry veteran, Tron Young, the Singapore Bar Awards (SGBA) is proof enough that our island is indeed full of talent and creativity. After all, within only a few years, the Singapore cocktail scene managed to raise their game and build its way through to be on par with the world’s hottest cocktail cities. Kudos to that!
So featuring eight different categories, the final selection at SGBA 2015 was made by 75 Singapore-based bartenders, spirits importers and journalists. The competition is essentially a recognition of the professionnels’ achievement and a highlight for the cocktail afficionados who form the crème de la crème.
This time, proudly stealing this year’s awards show, with three out of eight accolades, was 28 HongKong Street – bagging Best Bar, Best Service Crew and Best Bar Food. Clearly, in this one big happy family the staff is trained like nowhere else and that definitely shows on a day to day basis.
Receiving the Contribution to the Industry award was one of Singapore’s pioneers, Shawn Kishore, who is now spreading his expertise through Bespoken Concepts, and cementing his status at the same time.
Best New Bar went to the not so hush-hush Operation Dagger with its innovative and housemade libations while Best Male Bartender went to the acclaimed Tom Hogan from Anti :dote, who only wants one thing from you: to ‘take a free seat… and he will take care of the rest’.
And saving the best for the last, Bannie Kang was named Best Female Bartender for Nutmeg & Clove along Ann Siang Road.
So now that you know which are the snazziest bars to hit up in Singapore, it’s time to lap up on all the cocktail concoctions stat. Bottoms up people!
Céline Manoukian
