Nestled along the colourful street of Haji Lane is Bar Stories. It might be easy to miss this bespoke cocktail bar, since its located on the second floor of the shophouse and the chalk board sign on the first level isn’t the most prominent.
Make your way up the stairs and you’ll find yourself in a cozy space, with spirits of every kind sitting atop the bar counter. A fun fact about Bar Stories? It doesn’t have a drinks menu.
Now you may be wondering how you’re going to order that much-deserved martini after a long week. I caught up with Dave, head bartender at Bar Stories, who convinced me that sea urchins in a cocktail isn’t such a strange pairing after all.
Dave began bartending at Bar Stories some 8 years ago. He chanced upon Bar Stories with a friend — they were walking along Haji Lane when he saw a truck delivering fresh fruits to the establishment.
“I was very intrigued by how they used fresh herbs, like rosemary and thyme,” he says, adding that not many places use fresh ingredients.
Dave was a chef at that time, but wanted to try something else. “I was having a conversation with my friend and telling him I wanted to leave the kitchen. The manager at the time overheard our conversation and asked me if I’d like to work here.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
Creating Cocktails Based On Conversations
Since the bar has no menu, the bartenders make each order by having conversations with their guests.
“We have conversations with our guests and figure out what they want, the flavours they like, and create something,” explains the experienced head bartender.
The bar is divided into two sections ; if customers cannot get seats at the bar, they can enter the cozy extension with comfortable, cushioned seats. The servers, who take orders from guests, are bartenders as well — this is so that they can inform the bartender of the customers preferences accurately.
“If you’re sitting at the bar, it’s more or less spontaneous, since you’re talking directly to the bartender.”
The fact that everything is customisable makes Bar Stories a fun place to get your alcohol fix.
“We work off a common play book with lots of recipes. But you can switch it up all the time —each cocktail has lots of variations — add this or that, taking out something else.”
Unique Flavours
Dave notes that while people do ask for the conventional cocktail from time to time, he often tries to get them to try something new.
“We encourage customers to be more adventurous, to try something that we create.” Bar Stories does not have any signature cocktails – “not really” was Dave’s response when I asked – but they do have some unique flavours.
The bar uses a lot of Japanese yuzu, plus passionfruit that they juice themselves.
“It’s quite different because we don’t use concentrate, only fresh ingredients,” says Dave.
He refrains from recommending cocktails to customers, instead encouraging them to keep an open mind and try something new. “We don’t like to do that. Things change, our ingredients change based on what we have.”
“When you come into a bar like this, tell the bartender your preferences. But, at the same time be open enough to go out on a limb, and you may be really surprised. We don’t like it when people say ‘do anything’ or ‘we’ll leave it up to you’- thats too general,” he explains.
The owner cum bartender relates an interesting tale that just might inspire the typical bar-goer to step out of their comfort zone.
“I had a customer who told me she didn’t like gin. I said, are you allergic to gin? She said no, and I proceeded to make her cocktail with gin. She loved it, and now she always come back to have a gin cocktail.”
He reveals that at Bar Stories, they often do so to convince their customers to try new flavours. And they mostly succeed, too.
Concoctions Of All Kinds
Being a bespoke cocktail bar with no menu, Dave and his team of skilled mixologists have to be able to accommodate to a wide range of requests.
“Someone wanted a taste of the sea. I happened to have sea urchins on me, I don’t know why —I was probably gonna use it for home — but I put the sea urchin into the cocktail, and the customer liked it a lot,” recalls Dave.
He also incorporates chilli and ginger, which they juice, into drinks when customer ask for something spicy.
It’s probably hard to play favourites, but Dave says he enjoys making tropical cocktails most. “I personally like making the Tiki cocktails, which include blended rum, tropical fruits, passionfruit. If you study Tiki cocktails, you’ll see that they’re very complex. It’s hard to achieve a balance and a harmony of flavours. But theres a lot of finesse to a Tiki cocktail, if it is done right.”
Dave also likes to play around with local flavours, like lychee and sour plum. He encourages customers to ask for local flavours the next time they visit Bar Stories. The bartenders can incorporate pandan, osmanthus, even ginseng into your drink – so let them tickle your tastebuds.
Customer Satisfaction Is Key
Dave relates that they do encounter unsatisfied customers occasionally.
“If anyone is unhappy with their drink, we’ll change it for them. We ask them what’s wrong, what they don’t like about it and we’ll just need to calibrate and do another one.”
To ensure that customers are satisfied with their drinks, he also ensures that his team of servers check on customers who do not seem to be enjoying their cocktails.
Not a fan of spirits? Dave and his team can whip up a kick-ass mocktail for you any day.
“It’s still the same process,” says Dave. Customers can expect the same burst of different flavours and artistically garnished drinks, just without the alcohol. He shares that he gets requests for non-alcoholic drinks ‘all the time, multiple times each day.”
“We currently stock a non-alcoholic distillate, so we can make non-alcoholic cocktails with it. The only problem is that its twice as expensive as gin, and no one’s going to pay a cocktail price for something that is not alcoholic.”
Keeping Bespoke Cocktails Accessible
As there is no price list, customers are often given a ballpark range when they place their orders. Prices vary depending on the order, but the range is typically between $20-$25.
“We actually often undersell our cocktails because right now we’re getting a lot of premium alcohol, but we try to cap prices at $25.” Dave explains that people are not willing to pay high prices for drinks.
“If we wanted to charge around $28 for a drink – you could buy a meal with that money,” he says. While it may look good from a business perspective, Dave adds that he’s “a consumer as well.”
Many drinking establishments come and go over the years, yet Bar Stories is still thriving at Haji Lane. I asked Dave how they managed to stay competitive.
“I would like to find that out myself. We’ve been in business for 8 years, and we’re still busy every night.”
