In this briefing:
- What to expect at brand new bar, Your Mother's House;
- The thinking behind the name;
- Bar Bon Funk is turning two;
- and your chance to catch an award-winning Australian bar.
Welcome back to Boothby’s Singapore briefing, where this week we’re talking to the owners of the brand new cocktail bar, Your Mother’s House.
The bar comes from owners Shaheera Rahman and Bryan Bonifacio, both of whom worked together at Employees Only, and who have been searching for a bar to call their own since last year.
Below, the duo talks to us about how they found the perfect spot — at the former No Sleep Club — quite by accident, the direction behind the drinks (do try their Dirty Margarita, it is delicious), and more.
Let’s get into it.
BOOTHBY: Let’s start at the beginning. The name of the bar is Your Mother’s House — what’s the thinking behind the name?
SHAHEERA RAHMAN: For Singaporeans, it’s a joke. Not in an offensive way. There’s a grey area behind it. As a Filipino, for Bryan, for them it’s more of a welcoming, a going back home situation — they are very well known for being very hospitable. It’s in the DNA for them. We’re trying to put that in a cocktail bar setting. It may sound very cliche — like, oh yeah, we talk about hospitality — but it is in a manner of when you go home, and your grandmum or your mum is forcing food down your throat. It’s like, have you eaten? Here you go, have some more. You know what I mean?
[And as] at your mother’s house, the bar feels like a home also. Not in a super gimmicky way — something very easy on the eyes: neutral, not a super warm tone, not a super cool tone, to decompress. Like a house party hosting friends — chilling around your kitchen island, making some drinks, having potluck. That’s what we’re trying to do here.
BOOTHBY: What’s the idea behind the drinks program?
BRYAN BONIFACIO: We are in a region where there are a lot of really good bars; Singapore is always on the map as a cocktail destination. We have seasoned drinkers. So for us, we agreed that instead of going into a very niche drink program, we’ll just serve what we like drinking.
SHAHEERA RAHMAN: Going back to the basics, all the timeless stuff; it’s a riff of a riff. We have our own variation of a Margarita, a Paloma, a Dirty Vodka Martini. It’s just comfort. It’s never gonna go wrong. That will always be the foundation, and then you just spread out from there.
BOOTHBY: This used to be No Sleep Club — can you tell people what you’ve done to make it your own?
SHAHEERA RAHMAN: They used a lot of greys, blacks and whites and there was a lot of industrial track lights and all that. And the back bar, they were very well known for that. It was very eye-catching, everyone knew that was No Sleep Club.
So when we stripped that away, definitely the identity was stripped away. And we did these cabinets and all that to depict a home.
BOOTHBY: How long ago did you get the keys and take over the space?
BRYAN BONIFACIO: We got it by accident — we were actually away when it was offered to us.
SHAHEERA RAHMAN: We’d been actively looking for about eight months. We took over and then it was the whole process of going back and forth trying to find designers and all that — eventually that did not work out, so we did everything on our own.
BOOTHBY: That’s cool. What does it feel like to open your first bar?
BRYAN BONIFACIO: I feel like as a partner operator and founder it’s exciting and scary at the same time — it’s very different from being a bar manager. As a bar manager, you’re told what to do, there is a system, you embrace it, try to make it more profitable. But now, you have all these ideas in your head and you have a venue and you can actually express them. So sky’s the limit.
SHAHEERA RAHMAN: Definitely. The formula was already there, we were so influenced by our previous tenure at Employees Only, and definitely there was some influence in terms of comfort drinks and all that; we’ve seen how it’s been working [at EO] the past seven years of our time there.
BOOTHBY: Will you be jiggering or free-pouring drinks?
BRYAN BONIFACIO: Going back to our mission and vision, it’s like going to someone’s party. We try to take away all those extra steps to serve you the drink. So 80 percent of our drinks will be pre-batched. Once the doors open, you sit down, we greet you, give you some water, in less than a minute you have your drink. And whoever serves you, that’s who is making the drink for you. It’s just like you’re coming to your friend’s house.
BOOTHBY: You’re saying, let me get you a drink.
BRYAN BONIFACIO: Yeah. And be a chatty person, be hospitable. That’s the idea of the concept.
BOOTHBY: How many drinks will you have on the list?
BRYAN BONIFACIO: Currently we have 12. We have six signature classics, and six signature cocktails. The signature classics is where we combine two cocktails — either modern classic or classic cocktails — and they have a baby.
Then the signature cocktails are a more creative style, fun drinks.
Follow Your Mother’s House on Instagram (@ymh.sg) and visit them between 3pm and midnight, Tuesday to Sunday, at 20 Keong Saik Road.
Bar Bon Funk is celebrating its second birthday this Sunday with Big Fuzz, one of the Phillipines’ finest bars on hand. See more on their Instagram, here.
Above Board, one of my favourite bars (and one of Australia’s best) is heading to Atlas on Monday 24th August. Founder Hayden Lambert will be there, as will Paige Chabert (winner of the Breakout Bartender of 2025 title at the Boothby Drink of the Year Awards) — it kicks off at 6pm.
MO Bar at the Mandarin Oriental has launched their own signature gin; it comes in a suitably luxe vase-inspired ceramic bottle, and highlights botanicals like mandarin, osmanthus, and dried mango, in addition to its juniper, coriander seed, orris and liquorice root core. Bottles are available to buy at the bar, or you can try it in the Mandarin Martini ($27++).
Got a new bar, menu, or guest shift happening in Singapore? Let us know here: tips@boothby.com.au.
