The world’s favorite bartender opens his debut solo bar in Singapore

Uno Jang, the inventive pressure behind Singapore’s cocktail-bar specialist the Jigger & Pony Group, has turned a fin de siècle Tras Avenue shophouse within the metropolis’s Chinatown into a brand new bar, BOP – Bartenders of Pony. On each metric, it’s the Korean-born bartender’s most private enterprise but. The identify works 3 ways: Bartenders of Pony is a nod to the staff behind it; the acronym is near ‘bap’, the Korean phrase for rice; and it’s additionally a wink at Jang’s obsession with Ok-pop.

Jang’s buddy, the guide chef Jason Oh (who has featured in Netflix’s Culinary Class Wars), has formed a pint-sized but muscular menu that powers by the night at velocity, whereas Jang’s cocktails show far stronger than their brilliant, approachable flavours counsel. Tables occupy each doable nook, together with tight corners between columns, the preppy varsity-jacketed workers stepping nimbly by the crowds that pack in on the weekends to snack and groove to Nineteen Eighties and Nineteen Nineties vinyls.

Wallpaper* dines at Bartenders of Pony, Singapore

The temper: youthful vitality

Gabriel Tan (shortlisted for a Wallpaper* Design Award 2026) of native design studio Antimatter labored Korea’s conventional obangsaek color palette – white, black, blue, crimson, yellow, representing the 5 parts and cardinal instructions that run by Korean tradition – into three distinct zones with out falling into literal replica.

On the entrance of the Kki Bar, the place Jang usually holds courtroom, darkish timber meets a crimson ceiling. Additional in, the Skylight Inexperienced part opens up with verdant flooring tiles and ochre accents. The rear lounge wraps diners in crimson sofas framed by trendy interpretations of jogakbo – conventional patchwork wrapping cloths – now reimagined as a door curtain. Temper lighting retains the whole lot intimate, and the obangsaek palette, when layered throughout surfaces, shifts into sudden secondary tones that lend the areas a luxe, attractive temper.

The meals: beneficiant, quick, creative and scrumptious

Jason Oh’s affect delivers hefty portion sizes and flavour in equal measure. Perilla oil noodles arrive blanketed in crisp seaweed shards and sesame, hitting pure umami. The muchim salad balances tender squid, shatteringly crunchy cucumber and radish beneath basil leaves, with actual chilli chew and satisfying more-ishness. Tuna gimbap presents as neat discs of California rolls full of crab and daikon, and topped with thick, candy tuna slabs.

Fried rooster items snuggle in a dainty basket, their golden crust including an addictive, unctuous crunch. Pair all of it with Iced Somaek – draft beer topped with shaved soju ice that’s dangerously straightforward to drink regardless of its efficiency. The Perilla Smash, constructed on Korean mint sharpened with gin, lemon, perilla oil and vinegar, exhibits Jang’s contact for brightness tempered by complexity. A single dessert closes issues, and it’s a triumph: banana milk tiramisu, thick and aromatic, delivering creamy consolation with simply sufficient cheek for the street.