Located on Boon Tat Street, White Shades is a progressive cocktail-focused playground offering four distinctly different drinking experiences.
Why go to four places across town for fun, when you can visit just one that gives you four uniquely different experiences?
At least, that’s the premise for White Shades. This multi-concept space conceived by co-founder of award-winning cocktail bar Stay Gold Flamingo Bai JiaWei occupies a four-storey Boon Tat Street shophouse in Singapore’s bustling central business district, each of which offers a different cocktail-centric concept.
On the first floor of White Shades is ‘Dessert’, a vibrant and playful space that is home to an ice cream parlour. On the menu are 12 ice cream flavours; four of them, you’ll be glad to know, are laced with booze. Rather fun are the juniper-infused cones that provide an additional herbaceous layer of flavour to your choice of ice cream.
Alternatively you can refresh yourself from a range of hipster cold-brewed teas and coffees, or a number of low ABV tea-based cocktails if you’re of the NOLO bent.
Level two, ‘Cocktail’, is the beating heart of White Shades. This modern cocktail bar is exactly the kind of space you’d expect to find dedicated cocktail hounds swigging back intricately concocted tipples. Soulful, familiar tunes fill the air. Unlike brightly-lit ‘Dessert’, ‘Cocktail’ is shrouded in darkness.
Its debut cocktail menu, ‘unRAW’, looks to tell the story of White Shades’ beginnings. You have the likes of Savi Galloping, a progressive smoked Margarita that’s also spiced up with paprika, as inspired by the Hermès scarves that decorate the space. Or Bomber J, named for the bomber jacket uniforms worn by staff. This is a Japanese twist on the Old Fashioned, concocted with Suntory AO whisky, toasted rice syrup and hinoki bitters.
As for its fusion bar bites menu, culinary influence comes from the world over but snazzed up with local flourishes. Among our favourites is the Beef Tartare, the hand-chopped bits of meat tossed with runny quail yolk and fiery sambal matah, as well as the ‘Scallops’, which aren’t really the bivalves but king oyster mushrooms cooked to resemble them. Also worth the order is the Double Cheese Burger, a classic but oh-so-delectable ‘wich.
‘Cocktail’ also houses an alfresco space if you prefer to dine outdoors, as well as a hidden invite-only private room for those who prefer to drink from prying eyes.
On the third floor is ‘Event’. This is really an event space open for collaboration, a blank canvas for brand showcases. When we visited it looked like someone’s living room – with an inviting couch and an even more inviting gaming console – but it’s expecting a Maker’s Mark takeover in upcoming weeks.
Then there’s level four. ‘Rooftop’ is a laidback rooftop bar, similar to other outdoor watering holes common on the shophouse rooftops in the vicinity. Eight draft taps here dispense beer and quaffable cocktails, while acoustic covers and, in the coming future, live music, entertain patrons.
“Since young, it has always been a personal goal of mine to open my own space. From the moment guests step through the doors of White Shades, they will be transported into a vibrant world where each floor boasts a distinct identity, colour tone, and music genre, resulting in four mesmerisingly different experiences,” Bai shares.
Four floors are, apparently, better than one.
White Shades
Address 25 Boon Tat St, Singapore 069622 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 12pm to 10pm Mondays to Thursdays and 12pm to 11pm Fridays and Saturdays (L1 – Dessert); 5pm to 11pm Mondays to Saturdays (L2 – Cocktail); 5pm to 12am Mondays to Saturdays (L4 – Rooftop); closed on Sundays
Tel (65) 8575 8578
Facebook whiteshadessg
Instagram @whiteshadessg
Reservations here
