Welcome back to Boothby’s Singapore briefing, where this week we look at some key points from my chat with Night Hawk owner Peter Chua for our podcast Drinks At Work.
Below, lightly edited and condensed for clarity, Chua talks about the economic realities facing Singapore bars, and what he reckons you can do about it.
You can also get the whole chat with Chua via your podcast player of choice.
Let’s get into it.
BOOTHBY: What is it like running a bar in Singapore in 2026? There are many more venues now — is it harder to succeed and stand out?
PETER CHUA: I would say not harder to succeed. You’ll always be able to find your own market of people who would enjoy what you’re doing.
BOOTHBY: It’s a city of six million people, which is a lot, but it’s also not as big as New York, it’s not Mexico City.
PETER CHUA: Exactly, places where everyone’s going out to F&B all the time. It is harder to stand out because to be honest, I don’t mean this in a bad way, because if you do something cool, other bars are doing cool stuff as well. I see it as a good thing. It means that we’ve reached a level where our guests are spoiled for choices. It just makes us want to innovate more, and change the way people are drinking and enjoying the experience.
BOOTHBY: Are there any challenges in Singapore that you’d like to see removed? It’s a high cost of living here, like there is in Sydney, but I guess most of the major cocktail capitals around the world are the same.
PETER CHUA: That’s true. I mean obviously in a perfect world we will wish for lower operating costs. It’s hard. The government has put certain things in place to help but also protect, but in a way it’s also affecting the F&B. For example, a higher alcohol tax is to stop people from binge drinking and making alcoholism a menace to society. I get that. It’s part of social economics. But then that affects the overall cost for drinks and that affects the cost for consumers as well.
Obviously the capping of rent, it’s capitalism. Most of the places that we rent are from private landlords. It’s completely up to them to how much they want to charge their rental, because ultimately what they’re doing is that they’re playing with mortgage and interest from the bank. They’re valuing their places to earn money. It’s capitalism.
If in a perfect world there’d be regulations to the way they increase the rent and all that, that would be nice, right?
BOOTHBY: Every industry wants that. If you’re in oil and gas, you don’t want any regulations on it.
PETER CHUA: Exactly, exactly. Every industry has its pros and cons, but I think for F&B, especially now in this day and age where drinking is significantly less, people are more careful with the amount of drinks, and how often they go and drink, if they go and drink at all. If we use America as an example, now because weed is legalised there, they can either pay 10 bucks to get high or literally in New York $35 plus tips to get drunk. What would you do?
I think at some point in time it will balance itself out. But right now there’s really nothing else we can do; things are getting more expensive because resources are getting lower. People have less disposable cash.
Ultimately I think what we can do is try to keep things as affordable as we can. I’m a big champion for keeping cocktails at a very fair price. I get that we all try to make money and try to earn as much profit margin as possible. I want to do that as well. But the moment cocktails are no longer a commodity like coffee, and they start going towards being more of a luxury — you can only do this once a week — then we’re actually damaging our own market and hurting our own industry.
So I’m a big fan of making sure that you do the numbers. If you can afford to sell things at a little bit less, do it — only while you can still afford to pay your rent and your staff a fair wage.
Follow Night Hawk on Instagram (@night.hawk.sg) and visit them from 5.30pm Monday to Saturday at 43 Tanjong Pagar Road, Singapore.
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Native
52A Amoy St · tribenative.com · @nativebarsg
“You’re gonna see a bar that was using high-end technique to create a sustainable program, but only using Asian products and produce. But now they’re going back into time and to use more primitive ways to achieve the same results.”
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Sago House
37 Duxton Hill · sagohouse.sg · @sagohouse.sg
“[Sago House] is a bit unique and different, changes menus every week.”
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Cat Bite Club
75 Duxton Rd · catbiteclub.com · @catbiteclub
“Or even something like Cat Bite Club, where it’s a very specific spirit focus. And I like that. It's agave and rice spirits only.”
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Atlas
Parkview Square, 600 North Bridge Rd · atlasbar.sg · @atlasbarsg
“Go check out Atlas, because it’s beautiful, aesthetic, probably the biggest collection of gin in the world.”
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Bae’s Cocktail Club
21 Tanjong Pagar Rd, #01-04/05 · baescocktailclub.sg · @baescocktailclub.sg
“[Bae’s] was basically created by a group of friends with [Vijay Mudaliar], who created the drinks program. But true and truly, it is a micro club. It fits maybe at its best, 220 people, which is small for a club. But it is bumping,” says Chua. “I feel like it's for millenials. It’s in the neighbourhood where all the craft cocktail bars are and the restaurants are. So it’s a very good place where people [can] cap their night off.”
“Every time we go there, there’s a whole bunch of [bartenders], especially those from this area.”
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Jungle Ballroom
Level 3, 16A Duxton Hill, Mondrian Singapore Duxton · mondrianhotels.com · @jungleballroom
“It’s either [Bae’s] or it’s Jungle Ballroom. Jungle Ballroom is — [Adrian Besa] is running a ship that is both wacky but also tight.”
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Side Door
3 Neil Rd, #01-01 · @sidedoor_sg
“For food-wise, will be Side Door. It's like a minimalist cocktail bar with good food. The new menu just launched, so [Bannie] Kang and [Tryson Quek]. It’s really very wholesome food, but in a way that is very bar-grubby as well. It has a lot of local flair to it as well,” says Chua. “The entire menu, it’s not very big, it’s like eight or nine [dishes]. So anything that you pick will be good. One of my favourites is the fried chicken. [Tryson] does an amazing fried chicken. I don’t know if they change the mussels, but the mussels is one of my favourites as well.”
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Employees Only
112 Amoy St · employeesonlysg.com · @employeesonlysg
“Employees Only, they do good food as well, man. Like the burgers — or if you want a surprise, get the staff meal of the day. They have this thing called the staff meal, where you go there, you order, and it’s basically what they were making the staff. But obviously in a much better way.”
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Fura
74A Amoy St, Level 2 · fura.space · @fura.sg
“If you want something interesting, Fura, of course. Super delicious.”
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The Last Word
Ce La Vi plays host to Bangkok’s Bar Sathorn tonight, kicking off at 8pm.
Jigger & Pony is playing host to Hong Kong bar The Savory Project this Monday 21 September — the guest shift kicks off at 8pm.
On September 29, Live Twice is playing host to Hanoi’s Workshop14 and its bartenders Rich and Hendrick making their “technique-driven, modernist cocktails with clean, nuanced flavours.” 8pm to midnight.
Got a new bar, menu, or guest shift happening in Singapore? Let us know here: tips@boothby.com.au.
