Origin Bar's head bartender Adam Bursik with a copy of the menu, which he designed over two months, including many sleep-deprived nights. SINGAPORE – Choosing a cocktail can feel like a game of chance, especially at a craft cocktail bar, where many of the drinks are signature concoctions proprietary to the venue. In such a scenario, the physical menu is almost like a security blanket for guests trying to decide what to spend their $30 on.
Most cocktail menus are straightforward – a one- or two-page listing of each concoction’s name, price and ingredients. Some bars include photographs or realistic drawings of the drinks, while others use designs that express the vibe of the venue. Some bars choose to describe their drinks with flavour profile attributes, such as “floral” or “smoky”, even as they continue to push the boundaries of conventional cocktail ingredients.
At Origin Bar, located at the lobby of Shangri-La Singapore in Orange Grove Road, the current Infinity menu ticks some of these boxes. But bar manager Adam Bursik also sees it as another vessel to showcase the venue’s ethos of exploration through mixology. The approach has won Origin Bar acclaim recently.
In May, it was one of three local watering holes named in the inaugural edition of The Pinnacle Guide, a new recognition system for the world’s top bars. Two months later, Origin Bar made a strong landing at No. 32 in the Asia’s 50 Best Bars ranking for 2024.
This was a leap from its No. 95 plac.