In this issue:
- How to create a drinks program (that doesn’t suck) for a live music and entertainment space;
- What to expect when Lulu’s Lounge opens this month;
- The Last Word — a new bar opens and an OG bartender return to Hongkong Street this week (and a new opening from the Offtrack crew)
Welcome back to Boothby’s Singapore Briefing, where we’re looking at how a live music place might make drinks that are worth a visit in and of themselves.
This week, I talk to Bobby Carey, of Studio Ryecroft, the firm behind the design and execution of the recently opened Bar Kap. Their next project is the return of Lulu’s Lounge, slated to open this month in Chinatown.
And there’s something of a Hongkong Street theme to the Last Word section of this newsletter, with a new bar opening and an old hand returning to the street.
And as such, the quiz, too, is about 28 Hongkong Street. Find out below.
And a reminder, you can access all our Singapore and Asia stories at boothby.asia, along with each edition of this email briefing. In the meantime, do give us a follow on Instagram at @boothbydrinks, and send any tips, intel, or feedback to me direct at sam@boothby.com.au. I’d love to hear from you.
Okay, let’s get into it.
The Interview: designing the drinks program at the 1930s-inspired Lulu’s Lounge
“They asked us to help shape the beverage world for the new Lulu’s, but the role has gone beyond simply writing a cocktail list.”
The original Lulu’s Lounge was opened at the Pan Pacific in 2017 by Sarissa and Joshua Schwartz (SJS Group), and closed during the tumult that came with the Covid pandemic. This month, however, the concept returns, with Studio Ryecroft setting up the drinks and bar program.
Below, I talk to Studio Ryecroft co-founder Bobby Carey about how they’re ensuring that the drinks are quality (which, in a live music space, is not always the case), and what to expect when the venue opens.
BOOTHBY: What’s the big idea behind Lulu’s Lounge?
BOBBY CAREY: Lulu’s is a return, but not a repeat. The original venue already has a place in Singapore’s nightlife memory, so the opportunity here was to bring that spirit back with more depth, more polish and a fuller world around it.
The new Lulu’s looks to 1930 Shanghai: supper clubs, cabaret, live music, late-night food, glamour, mischief and the feeling that the evening can keep changing shape around you. It is a home for fun and frolics, but with serious hospitality sitting underneath it.
That balance is important. The venue is arriving in a part of Chinatown that can be quieter from an F&B perspective, so Lulu’s has the potential to become a real beacon of late-night energy there. It is not just a cocktail bar with entertainment attached. There is a proper contemporary Chinese food programme, a strong performance layer, a leadership team we are genuinely excited about, and a drinks list built to move with the room from early evening into the late hours.
BOOTHBY: How did you come to be involved in this project?
BOBBY CAREY: We came into the project through SJS Group and our relationship with Sarissa and Josh, who we have been working with quite closely. They asked us to help shape the beverage world for the new Lulu’s, but the role has gone beyond simply writing a cocktail list.
We have been involved in how the drinks sit inside the wider venue: the service rhythm, the recruitment and training requirements, the way the bar team can execute consistently, and the collateral that supports the programme. With a venue like Lulu’s, the drinks cannot feel like a separate exercise. They need to belong to the food, the music, the lighting, the menu language, the uniforms and the late-night mood of the room. The best version of Lulu’s is when all of those pieces feel like they are pulling in the same direction.
BOOTHBY: Can you give us an idea of what kind of drinks will be on the list?
BOBBY CAREY: The drinks are built around recognisable cocktail formats, but each one has a character and a reason for being there.
Scarlet Letter is our scandal drink: a vivid fizz-style serve that draws from reputation, desire and the glamour of being impossible to ignore. Lulu’s Calling is the house martini, imagined as Lulu’s private dressing-room drink, served ice-cold and built around a sous-pression infusion approach inspired by Panda & Sons in Edinburgh.
Shanghai Kiss is a camera-ready sour with a lipstick motif, playful, bright and very much in the spirit of the room. ABC After Dark is a mezcal milk punch that takes its cue from Shanghai’s old candy culture, landing somewhere between smoke, milk candy and late-night softness.
There are also richer after-dark drinks like Broken Mirror, our after-show Espresso Martini direction, finished with the kind of pastry-like detail you might expect after the curtain has dropped. The non-alcoholic section follows the same logic. Encore is designed as a full-performance serve, not a compromise, for guests who want to stay in the room and stay in the mood without ordering another alcoholic drink.
BOOTHBY: In terms of ingredients and flavour, what’s the focus there? Why?
BOBBY CAREY: The flavour world is Chinese, regional and late-night, but it is not trying to be academic. We are taking cues from fruit stalls, tea, candy, dessert, spice, preserved flavours, supper-club indulgence and Shanghai glamour, then translating those references into drinks that still feel easy to understand.
That means the menu moves between bright, perfumed, sour, smoky, creamy, bitter, spiced and comforting. Some drinks are built for colour and immediate impact. Some are more elegant and spirit-led. Others lean into milk punch, tea, candy, coffee, chestnut or sour plum. Our Lulu’s Five Spice blend is a good example of the approach: it gives a drink a clear house identity, but it still has to be delicious before it is clever.
The main thing is that the flavours need to be readable. Lulu’s is a room with music, food, performance, conversation and movement, so the drinks cannot ask the guest to stop the evening and study them. They need to give pleasure quickly, then reveal a little more detail if the guest wants to look closer.
BOOTHBY: Drinks in bars that are home to live music aren’t always good. What are you doing to make sure these drinks suit the environment but also stand up on their own?
BOBBY CAREY: We were very conscious of that from the beginning. Live music venues often get given a free pass on drinks because the entertainment is doing so much of the work. We did not want that for Lulu’s.
Our rule is simple: the drink that goes out at opening needs to be as good as the drink that goes out at 1am. There is no compromise across the cocktail menu because the room gets busier, louder or later.
What changes is the way the drinks are engineered. They are built for speed, accessibility and consistency, with clear flavour signatures, smart batching, practical garnishes and serves the team can replicate through dinner, live sets, cabaret moments and late-night service.
The drinks need to suit the environment, but they also need to stand up without it. If a cocktail is not good enough to live on the menu in its own right, it does not belong at Lulu’s.
