7 Purvis St, Singapore
“I’m a sucker for a Mikkeller Bar”
The staircase leading up to the entrance door is a deep yet bright red. This is matched once you get get to the top by the door itself. In through the door and you’re met with the Mikkeller neon light sign up on the wall right infront of you, to the left the room opens up into the bar and the seating area. The red is present in the bar as well, at the far end all the wooden window frames and shutters are painted red, offset by a pastel mint/turquoise green for the walls. The back bar is equally fantastic in black glossy tiles with black grouting and the large taplist blackboard hanging up about it. This was the fourth Mikkeller Bar I’d been to so far, two in Copenhagen and one in Bangkok, this is however, and I hate to say it, the first one where I need to be a little picky. I myself worked for a little more than seven years in a reasonably busy pub so I know what it is to work hard and to slack off. The bar itself was immaculate, nothing was broken or mouldy or anything like that. There were two people working, a boy and a girl, both sat on the table next to the bar, both with their laptops out and open and both of them with plates of food in front of them that they where picking at whilst laughing and chatting together and playing nineties hip-hop over the music system. There where three customers sitting at the table next to them, seemingly having a great time themselves but it was clear there had been a few more people in there before I had arrived. There were a few scattered empty/half empty glasses on tables and on the shelf along the windows as well as about seven or eight dirty glasses being collected on the bar by the sink. I really don’t like to point out the negative, it was a nice bar, it’s just it would have taken one of the two employees maybe two or three minutes to walk around and pick up each empty and rinse them out. Plus, and this is just my opinion, if you are at work in a bar and really have nothing to do then hang out behind the bar wiping it repeatedly, don’t sit down and eat and chill. What saved this for me was when the boss walked in. Seconds, truly seconds after waving a observant eye over the bar did he jump into delegating action. The other two were up and running, collecting, cleaning, rinsing and working, it was good to see. He also put a much more customer friendly playlist on seeing as a young German couple walked in with a small baby and probably were not going to stay with Snoop Dogg or Ludacris blaring. That was as well the minute when I was up to the bar for my second order. The boss was still there and very happy to take a second to chat with me, offer suggestions, discuss my options, what had I had, which flavours were I looking for, it was a good interaction.
I’m a sucker for a Mikkeller Bar, I really am. People always say it to me, and they’re right. Why, when I go to a far away lands, do I continually frequent the Mikkeller Bars when I find them? It’s easy really, quality and creativity. The beers you find in a Mikkeller Bar when you’re in Thailand, Singapore, Japan for instance, you’re only going to find in a Mikkeller Bar, they are relatively hard to find beers. That and there is always a “local option”, a beer carrying either the name of the area or the street where the bar is and as far as I can tell these can only be found in each individual bar, nowhere else. But don’t hold me to that, I might be completely wrong. Right now though, that is one of my major rationales to visiting each Mikkeller Bar I find so please don’t crush my dreams if I am wrong about that, ok. Back on topic, finding the Mikkeller Bar Singapore. Not all that hard. Definitely not as hard as finding previous Mikkeller Bars in other cities. Possible the toughest part of the exercise here was not knowing, and I really don’t know why we didn’t, that this bar is located on the first floor of a building. Now that might not seem to you to provide much of an obstacle but then imagine walking along, passing bar after bar and restaurant after restaurant but not paying attention to the individual doorways in between them, you’ll soon miss what you’re looking for. Luckily, and quite frankly expectedly, obviously really when you think about it, the superbly genius team at the bar have placed a blackboard sign outside the door at ground level semi blocking your progression along the pavement. There is a lit sign sticking out from the wall as well but I’ll admit, whilst looking at the map on my phone I did miss that. This wasn’t an epic adventure either to get to the street that the bar is on. Singapore has a very well laid out street system and if you’re walking, taking the bus, getting a taxi or Grab it is super simple to get to this street. You just need to get inside the bar by yourself.
1 – Purvis Pilsner – Mikkeller (Denmark) | Pilsner | 5,6% abv | 31 IBU
2 – Purvis Brown – Mikkeller (Denmark) | Belgian Brown Ale | 5,0% abv
3 – Purvis Wit – Mikkeller (Denmark) | Witbier | 4,5% abv
4 – La Sirenita – Mikkeller (Denmark) | Spiced / Herb Beer | 4,7% abv
Ok, I was at this bar on a Wednesday night so it wasn’t that busy. I don’t mind that. I get to look around, take a few nice photographs and have a chat with the staff because nobody is running around like crazy. It is nice to see how bars work when it’s packed but if you’re there like I was to have a drink and snap some pics then you also don’t want to continually be getting in peoples way or waiting for a clear shot. I can well imagine this place being really nice to be in on a busy night. There was an upstairs mezzanine-like seating area that overlooked the bar, probably space for at least twenty or twenty-five more people up there to go with the thirty+ that you could get in the main bar room. Mikkeller Bars are nice in that no matter where in the world you go to one, they all share a very similar and clearly identifiable look but yet all maintain a very individual and independent feel at the same time. This bar was no different. Other than my taking issue with the two overly relaxed staff members I found this place really nice. The atmosphere was really cool. The colour scheme was definitely funky, loved that. Sitting at the window you get to participate in some serious people watching down on the street or peer into the swanky restaurants and watch others whilst they eat their dinner and the guy that I presume was the manager was very nice, knowledgeable, friendly and welcoming. If I were in Singapore again I would probably swing by a second or third time. There was at least one more Purvis beer I’d have liked to try and some of the guest beers sounded extremely appealing. You can go to other craft beer bars in Singapore, there are plenty, but if you’re looking for a real quality product, if you take Craft Beer seriously and you’re looking to taste some of the worlds heavy hitters then you need to go and meet Mikkeller and friends, you won’t be disappointed and neither will your palate. The pursuit of hoppiness continues…
In The Pursuit Of Hoppiness 