Taking the Friday off to have a long weekend? Here are four newly opened restaurants, cafes and bars that deserve your off-work attention.
The Unlisted Collection's newest opening at the Hotel Vagabond is a partnership with the former SKIRT at W Singapore's chef de cuisine Andrew Nocente. The meat game here is strong – Nocente flexes his Italian cuisine heritage to tame wood grills, pickle vegetables and cure his own meats. We're seeing much social media love already for their caramel and bacon-loaded Anzac biscuits and sous vide beef tongue – definitely for the carnivores.
Pair a visit here with post-dinner drinks at Vagabond Bar. Put together by the team from Proof & Company and helmed by Mexican barman Mauricio Allende, its menu boasts art-inspired cocktails, craft beers, and more than 50 whiskeys.
Photo: Clinton St
Yet another franchise arrives in Singapore, this time from New York. DeDe Lahman and Neil Kleinberg first set up shop in the Lower East Side, and their success – built on a following for their buttermilk fried chicken with waffles, eggs Benedicts and New York pancakes – has brought them their first South-East Asian outpost on Purvis Street.
Other diner fare like crispy potato pancakes with house-smoked salmon, Southern breakfast with sugar-cured bacon and cheese grits, and the promise of an Instagrammable brunch, have helped it grow a queue since it opened last Saturday. Clinton Street has a no-reservations policy, so this is strictly for the brunch obsessed. Come in your most comfy shoes for the wait.
After an 18 year run at the Ritz-Carlton, Millenia Singapore, Greenhouse is no more. Taking over in grand style is Colony, named to fit its palette of black, brown and gold, and the stories of British colonialism it conjures with maps with old cursive, old black and white photographs and postcards hung strategically to section off the dining room into intimate little nooks.
Ask for seats at one of their booths – it feels a lot like you've booked in to a cabin in luxury steam train. The breakfast ($45), lunch ($58) and nightly buffets ($78) from the old Greenhouse are still in place, as are the stumble-out-happy Vintage Champagne brunches ($188, includes Louis Roederer Brut Vintage 2008 and Brut Rosé 2009). Highlights from across the seven buffet stations include fresh oysters, foie gras on brioche, the steaming dim sum counter with hand-pulled noodles, and a selection of local fry-ups like cereal prawn, seafood fried rice and XO sauce.
If an eating marathon is not what you're after, The Patisserie and Bakery stations also offer takeaways like The Upper Crust – a muffin and cookie hybrid – chocolates and other sweet goods. Colony also hosts an Afternoon Tea every Monday to Saturday ($49/person) with a three-tiered tea set and a glass of Champagne to help celebrate the gathering.