In this briefing:
- What to expect from Kyte when it debuts next week;
- “the whole idea of sustainability and the goals we had in mind were unfortunately a load of bollocks;”
- why bamboo straws will not save the world (and what you should do instead);
- Scavenged ingredients, no high-tech kit, and a bar built for the collapse — but one that’s really about caring for each other;
- The Last Word — what’s on in Singapore and beyond.
Welcome back to Boothby’s Singapore briefing, where we are talking about what it will be like to drink when the apocalypse comes.
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From Monday 2 November to Wednesday 4 November, Ghostwriter — Jay Gray’s space for breaking new bar concepts — is back, with Tom Egerton taking over with a concept he describes as “the bar at the end of the world.”
Taking place on the third floor of One Trick Pony on Club Street, it’s a post-sustainability pop-up bar that Egerton is calling Kyte.
You may know Egerton as one of the co-founders of Tokyo Confidential and Niseko Confidential in Japan; he has also spent time as a consultant, working on projects like Hong Kong award-winner Argo.
Kyte gets its name from the blacktailed hawk of the same name, a bird of prey which you’ll see swooping in and out of the skyscrapers of Hong Kong — something of a symbol of the way nature has to adapt to the effects humans have made on the modern world.
While Egerton will be on hand for the first few nights, Kyte will be sticking around at Ghostwriter for the month ahead.
I asked Egerton what to expect from Kyte over email this weekend — get the details below.
BOOTHBY: What’s the idea behind the pop-up? Residency? What are we calling this?
TOM EGERTON: This is the first seasonal pop-up for Singapore’s Ghostwriter, the concept development space at One Trick Pony—the multi-hyphenate hospitality creative space from the mind of Jay Gray. It’s a space to develop creative concepts for the hospitality industry; think of it as an incubator to grow and explore ideas that might not be ready for a full launch within a framework that includes creative support, market experience, and a dedicated bar and kitchen team. In my mind, it’s less of a pop-up and more of a space where concepts can be grown and explored. Ideas always change once they leave your own head and encounter the guest, so a month-long engagement is a great opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t.
BOOTHBY: I think I saw something about sustainability — didn’t COVID happen and we all gave up hating plastic straws? What does sustainability look like these days?
TOM EGERTON: Sustainability is definitely at the core of the idea behind Kyte, but it has undergone a bit of an evolution. When sustainability was the current trend before Covid, it was a big part of my career. When I first joined Potato Head, it was undergoing a full operational shift toward sustainable operations across its venues in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Indonesia, which eventually led to the Bali site gaining B Corp certification. After that, I joined Proof & Company in part to help with the rollout of the ecoSpirits platform in the region. I ended up becoming a bit of a minor “sustainability influencer,” invited to give talks on the subject and even doing a TED Talk about sustainability in hospitality. Then, as you say, Covid happened, and we all realised the whole idea of sustainability and the goals we had in mind were unfortunately a load of bollocks.
Kyte at its core is the idea of a post-sustainability bar, with the tagline and core principle being “The bar at the end of the world.” I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but everything is kind of fucked right now, and no one seems to be doing anything about it. The inspiration behind the food and drink design is based on a collapse in the supply systems that all of us are very realistically going to experience in the next few years—I mean, it’s happening right now. It’s an ironic coincidence that we are launching Kyte in Singapore, which, alongside Malaysia, Indonesia, and other countries in the region, has been blanketed in smoke for months from wildfires in Indonesia caused by draining natural peat bogs to replace them with commercial palm oil plantations.
These changes are coming and they will affect us all, and unfortunately, using bamboo straws isn’t going to do much to change anything. Luckily, we are resilient and able to adapt—we are just animals and animals have been adapting to urban encroachment and the destruction of their natural habitats for years. The concept name is inspired by the blacktailed kite, a hawk that has adapted to the glass and concrete of the Hong Kong skyline. The birds use the updrafts around skyscrapers to hunt and fly, adapting to forced changes in their environment in order to survive.
The ingredients will be scavenged, based on tinned fruit and mass-produced local products you would expect to find in any post-apocalyptic supermarket you’re ransacking. Obviously, for this concept, nothing should be imported or sourced from anywhere further than a day’s walk on foot: everything should be as localised as possible, turning local trash into ingredients. The drinks program will avoid any high-concept equipment or technology in order to stay true to concept of a post-collapse ecosystem. Fermentation, curing, pickling and curdling will be the extent of the techniques applied for the beverage program
Ultimately, bamboo straws and bars aren’t going to save the world. But the idea behind Kyte is to create a space where we can care for each other, provide the essence of hospitality and take a moment’s shelter at “the bar at the end of the world.”
BOOTHBY: How did this opportunity come up?
TOM EGERTON: Jay and I used to work together more than a decade ago in Sydney when we were at the original site of Eau de Vie in Kings Cross, before he moved to Singapore and I moved to Hong Kong. I always enjoyed the creative synergy we had together and the wilder ideas we came up with, so when he mentioned the concept of the new season of Ghostwriter I knew I wanted to be a part of the program. Kyte is something I’ve had rattling around in my head for a few years, but I never had the time or opportunity to develop it further. The prospect of having an existing collaborative framework to support developing an idea and concept was definitely attractive—especially since I get to team up and work together again with an old friend.
BOOTHBY: You’ve run seasonal bars — like Niseko Confidential. How is this similar? Is it? How does the approach need to differ from running a more permanent bar?
TOM EGERTON: The great thing about the Ghostwriter concept is that you essentially walk into an existing, structured team with local market experience, so you have the freedom to develop an idea and integrate feedback into the process. Seasonal bars, especially in environments like ski towns, present the challenge where you essentially have to make a whole year’s revenue within the brief period where conditions are right—like when the snow is deep enough. For the rest of the year, you still need to pay rent even if there are no guests.
Once the month at Ghostwriter is over, Kyte may find another short-term home in Asia or further abroad — the grim reality is the concept of a venue shaped by catastrophic environmental shifts is relevant to pretty much any market in the globe right now and it doesn’t look like that will change any time soon.
BOOTHBY: Are you looking for staff? If so, who is the kind of bartender you’re looking for, and how can they get in touch?
TOM EGERTON: Not for this project, but I’d always recommend any young bartender eligible for a working holiday program anywhere in Asia to take advantage of the option. It’s one of the most dynamic, supportive, and creative regions in the cocktail world right now, and there are always opportunities to work with some of the industry’s best and brightest minds. If anyone wants to learn more about working in Asia, my Instagram DMs are always open if anyone wants to drop me a message.
