The Hideout is a small Telok Ayer cocktail-and-live-jazz room with a bookings-only door and a programme that runs Wednesday through Saturday. It is the city's best small-room music-and-cocktails pairing, and it has held that position quietly for several years.
The bar seats thirty-two. The stage seats four players. The cocktail counter runs along the back wall. The room is built for the specific kind of evening — three sets of music starting at 9pm, two cocktails between each, a kitchen doing small Asia-inflected plates if you want them. Reservations open on the first of each month for the month ahead and tend to be gone within a week.
The cocktail programme is built around classics with one or two unusual ingredients per drink. The Hidden Negroni — gin, Campari, sweet vermouth, kalamansi-leaf tincture — is the house signature and the right opening order. The Pandan Old Fashioned and the Yuzu Daiquiri are equally good. Spirits-led drinkers will find the small whisky list (Japanese-heavy) more interesting than the cocktails.
The Hideout is the right call when you want the cocktails and the music to be equally good and you are willing to plan ahead. Two-and-a-half hours is the right run; longer is the wrong commitment for the room.
Best time to visit: Weekday evenings before 9pm for the quieter version of the room; weekends after 9pm for the busier one. Reservations recommended where the bar accepts them.
What to order
- 01
Hidden Negroni
- 02
Pandan Old Fashioned
- 03
Yuzu Daiquiri
- 04
Japanese Whisky Highball
- 05
Champagne Cocktail