Jigger & Pony's Sugarhall returns as rum cocktail pub

Sugarhall is back. But first, to get in, one must locate a nondescript alley and ascend a quiet flight of stairs up a 1920s heritage building – we can’t say where, per the modus operandi of joints so trendy, they don’t need no shopfront. (We jest, it’s The Quadrant At Cecil.)

The last we saw this Asia’s 50 Best Bars winner along Amoy Street was 2018. A four-year-hiatus later, the Jigger & Pony Group concept is back on the block, boasting a ‘new approachable attitude’ but the same ol’ passion for rum.

Eat, drink and unwind to funk, reggae and ska in an interior inspired by British neighbourhood pubs: Dark wood, fairy lights, and exposed pillars courtesy Hui Designs and group co-founder Indra Kantono. The goal? Convert guests into rum lovers.

Speaking of rum, highball-style crowd favourite Dark & Stormy returns (Hampden 8 year aged overproof Jamaican rum, fresh lime, house brand “I Shot the Ginger” ginger beer), alongside Daiquiri (Veritas Blended Rum, Bacardi Superior 1909), and One Punch Rum (Appleton 8 Years, Mount Gay Ecplise, Gosling’s 151 Proof Rum). Or get the premium or exclusive Rum Of The Month in a flight or cocktail.

Principal bartender Sam Loh is back, but operations manager Davide Boncimino and executive chef David Tang, both from group concept Rosemead, are fresh to this party.

Tang's culinary chops should be on show come May, when Sugarhall launches its full menu, featuring signatures such as orange fried chicken, cheeseburgers with beer-and-treacle-cured smoked bacon, and snapper, fennel, and laver pie. For now, do without the pub fare with fine-dining flair. Bar bites are available.

So what to expect of this rebirth? As Boncimino, a Don Papa UK and Bacardi Legacy Singapore competition winner, sums up: "Familiar ingredients, but well-curated. Easy for guests to understand right away."

Sugarhall reopens on March 3, 2022.

This article was first published in The Peak.