New bars to check out

Sospiri and Baia

Sospiri is il Lido group’s new South Italian restaurant and rooftop bar. Located at the new IOI Central Boulevard Towers, the venue is sheltered, making it an ideal spot even with Singapore’s unpredictable weather.

Sospiri offers primarily Italian wines. “Our collection includes rare and vintage wines from Piemonte and Tuscany,” says owner Beppe De Vito.

“We carry the prestigious Solaia, a high-calibre Tuscan wine, and Conterno Fantino, known for its elegance. We also offer wines from the acclaimed producer Angelo Gaja, whose structurally sophisticated wines from Piemonte are celebrated worldwide.”

The bar menu features a diverse array of Italian-inspired cocktails too. 

Another soon-to-open concept by the group is Baia. Perched on the rooftop of Esplanade, the bar is touted as a high-octane lifestyle destination. The bar programme is curated by cocktail specialists Proof & Co.

Dragonfly

Dragonfly at Vibe Hotel Singapore Orchard is a destination bar that offers classic and craft cocktails alongside live music performances. It is the first outpost of Dragonfly Hong Kong, a boutique bohemian cocktail lounge designed by artist Ashley Sutton.

Utilising the foundations of classic cocktail recipes, Dragonfly’s signature cocktails are given a creative twist.

“For example, when you think of tomato cocktails, like the Bloody Mary, the savoury style and natural umaminess of the tomato comes to mind,” says bar manager Morgan Raelin Barron.

“Dragonfly’s tomato cocktail, Veil of Fondness, plays on the potentials of tomato differently. Instead of savouriness, we highlight the fruit’s fruity and slightly sweeter characteristics, and bring this out further when we pair it with watermelon and a floral gin.”

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Dragonfly’s menu also has an eau de vie section, showcasing spirits such as pisco, cognacs and calvados that are not widely featured in cocktail menus.

Big Wine Freaks

This new champagne and wine bar at 44 Bukit Pasoh Road offers more than 500 labels and 2,000 bottles, sourced from micro-farms dedicated to organic and sustainable farming practices.

Highlights include fine wines from Champagne and Burgundy regions produced by the next generation of producers.

Some of the standout champagnes are from Frederic Savart, a micro-estate where all wines are produced by hand; and Olivier Horiot, a producer from Cote des Bar, who also runs a livestock farm. 

Also try wines from Maison Pinot Noar by Arnaud Lopez who’s worked as an agronomist for 10 years in Prieure-Roch, one of the first biodynamic estates in Burgundy. Today, he has organised a micro-negoce project, producing just 25,000 bottles using only bio-grapes.

One of the rare wines that’s exclusively available only in Singapore is from Domaine des Miroirs by Kenjiro Kagami, a Japanese winemaker who had worked for a long time in Alsace and subsequently became a star winemaker in Jura.