AWAY from the bright lights of Orchard Road and Marina Bay Sands, the island-state’s historical clusters are a playground for exploration and experimentation. Be it Chinatown, Tiong Bahru or Kampong Glam, each has its own stylish persona and exudes mystique and charm. The OPTIONS team joins the throngs to discover these new hip and happening places in the Lion City.
It’s close to six on a Thursday evening. The sun is sinking below the horizon and cocktail hour has come into play. Singapore’s inner city is stirring — the creative agencies have shut down their computers and the boutique art galleries are schmoozing with their last visitors.
There’s a buzz in the air — nay, it’s a variety of sounds drifting from the chic and happening bars and restaurants that dot the intimate network of streets, lanes and alleyways that make up Chinatown — a borough of old Singapore.
The smart and stylish set arrives — the men in their polished brogues and tailored shirts, the ladies in dapper, yet sensible, flats and toting Prada bags. They pull in on foot or by taxies, to meet their respective table reservations — hardly anyone drives here.
There’s a party of five at The Retrospective Restaurant Bar on Keong Saik Road, which looks like something out the 1980s and 1990s — complete with a Pacman machine and a soundtrack that includes Janet Jackson’s Control (1986).
At Duxton Hill, a sophisticated exercise in French cuisine that is housed in one of the street’s pre-war shophouses, a couple is catching up on the toils of the day.
Meanwhile, in the post-war shoplots on Jiak Chuan Road, a group of friends is celebrating the pending weekend over at 17-year-old Hibiki at Mariko’s — a New Age ramen bar themed around a Manga comic book character of the same name — a tragic prostitute, if you really want to know.
The Cufflink Club is next door and is quiet until about nine, when the beautiful crowd spills over into the street, sipping clever cocktails.
Further down, Esquina — the funky fusion tapas bar that takes no reservations — is doing well with its crowd management. On its busiest night, its patrons too do not mind balancing drink and tapas, while standing in the street. Yes, chef Jason Atherton is that good.
Orchard Road and Marina Bay Sands may have their own brand of pleasures and experiences and are now the domain of deep-pocketed tourists, but Singapore’s young, urban and presumably professional people are seeking diversion away from the bright lights and other man-made wonders the nation has installed for its tourists.
And they are finding it in old Singapore — the sexier Singapore that still has its mystique and charm.
What they are looking for is a slice of Old World elegance with 21st century luxuries, courting and culling nostalgia into something that is hip, fashionable and desirable.
It seems to be a concentrated lifestyle phenomenon, possibly inspired by the kind of intimate ambience that can only be found in these old boroughs. To the new generation, these historical clusters are a cradle of opportunity, a playground for experimentation and exploration.
It was only five years ago when the busiest time in Singapore’s historic Chinatown was during the festive seasons. These days, it’s six in the evening, even on weekdays.
The energy is young and vibrant. The area has become the epicentre of emerging trends — the defining platform for what is hot and haute, from closed membership whisky and cigar joints, to underground pubs (password, please).
The offerings are kaleidoscopic, appealing to a variety of audiences. The best of the Lion City’s fine dining can also be found here, from French nouveau cuisine to its latest culinary craze — Spanish tapas.
In fact, Chinatown is the birthplace of the “boutique” concept in the region, with the establishment of the first of Southeast Asia’s boutique hotels here.
Then came the boutique restaurants, boutique advertising agencies and anything that alluded to intimate and bespoke services. And this was almost 10 years ago.
Now, other old and once undesirable areas are cropping up as comparatively high-income consumer destinations as well, each of them now assuming their own stylish and most fashionable personas.
There is Tiong Bahru — Singapore’s first public housing estate built between 1936 and 1941, a cluster of Art Deco tenements and shophouses.
Once known as the “den of beauties”, as the rich infamously housed their mistresses here, today it has taken on a new bohemian chic, with its laidback coffee houses, retro chic pubs and restaurants offering 11am brunch, funky bookstores and art galleries.
Kampong Glam — the Malay ethnic quarters, has struck a delicate balance between the old and new with traditional textile shops alongside speciality coffee houses, funky shisha bars and designer boutiques along its iconic Haji Lane.
“If there was any word to describe this lively street, it is ‘attitude’,” declares an enthusiastic tourist guide.
And it is attitude and a pioneering spirit that are driving this epic movement — lifestyle hubs that straddle the past and future with panache. These revitalised and renewed boroughs provide a new dimension to an already-dynamic metropolis, and reiterate Singapore’s pole position as the region’s beacon of progress and wealth.
This movement seems to have spread to its neighbours. George Town in Penang, Jakarta, Manila and Hanoi have taken a page out of Singapore’s book — looking for inspiration and potential in their old settlements.
The lifestyle trends and concepts that have emerged in Singapore’s new and fashionable destinations are cutting edge and likely to be embraced and adopted. And this is just the beginning.
The weekend in numbers 06.09.13 to 08.09.13
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