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*this article first appeared on thespiritsbusiness.com December 2025: full article here
It was a rough start to 2025 for Singapore’s bar scene. As revellers toasted the New Year, Tippling Club – one of the city’s most acclaimed venues – was pouring its last drinks after almost 17 years.
Tippling Club gave no reason for its closure, but it soon became clear it was not an isolated case. In January, queer venues Tuckshop and Sausage Market closed, followed in March by Smoke & Mirrors at the National Gallery. In July, the Jigger & Pony group shut two concepts – Sugarhall and Rosemead – though a new project is promised in their place.
Perhaps the biggest shock came in July when the Singaporean arm of distributor Proof & Company went into liquidation. Tellingly, the business attributed its downfall to the closure of some of its longest‐standing partner restaurants and bars. The parent group continues to operate in Hong Kong and New Zealand, and its cocktail bar in Singapore, 28 HongKong Street, remains open. Additionally, its consultancy arm, Proof Creative, was unaffected, although in August, its creative director, Bobby Carey, left the business. “Proof & Company was the pioneer of fine drinking throughout Singapore and the rest of Southeast Asia,” says Carey. “But with rising costs, people are shifting away from craft because they’re worried about pour costs.”
He corroborates the company’s line about closures, but adds that the problem goes beyond hospitality, with Singapore losing both its biggest independent cinema and commercial cinema in recent months.
“There are a lot of cultural shifts happening in Singapore, which is sad to see,” he says. “There’s the dissolution of these third and fourth spaces, which is tough, especially for the younger generations.”
Yet Carey is backing hospitality, launching a consultancy called Studio Ryecroft. “There’s an optimism and a pessimism at the same time,” he says.
Carey argues that talent is simply shifting elsewhere. “Singapore has always been a bastion of drinking in Southeast Asia,” he says. “It’s risen the tide for everywhere else around Southeast Asia. A lot of people who worked in Singapore have moved back to their home countries – and now they’re working at a lot cheaper rate. It’s great to see how Southeast Asia is growing, but for Singapore, it’s definitely changed.”
Carey believes the government could reduce alcohol duty. “Maybe this is from having worked in a distribution company, but if that tax goes down, we can sell spirits cheaper, which has a knock‐on effect the whole way down,” he says.
