Druggists

The Chinese Druggists Association still shares the building. The ground floor prescribes hops.

Druggists is the bar to start a Jalan Besar evening in, and the one you may never leave if the taps are kind. Beer people get a list with real range; everyone else gets something cold, a marble table and friends who like to argue about it. Go on a weeknight, when the room is lively but you can still hear the person explaining what a sour is. The compromise: the tasters are not free, so decide how adventurous you are feeling before you start sampling the whole board.

Why it works

Twenty-three taps pour craft beer on the ground floor of a 1930s shophouse on Tyrwhitt Road, which the bar shares with the Singapore Chinese Druggists Association, hence the name. Since 2015 the room has dispensed a different kind of remedy. It was opened by Corrine Chia and Lincoln Goh, the distributor pair behind The Drinking Partners, who built most of the interiors themselves and modelled the bar on Mikkeller's Copenhagen flagship. You can see the influence in the confidence of the list.

The details are local: marble-topped tables, kopitiam-style chairs, mosaic floor tiles and a draught handle repurposed as the tap at the hand-washing sink, which is the sort of joke we like a bar to make about itself.

What to drink

The taps rotate, and the range runs from the challenging end, imperial stouts, hazy IPAs and sours, to easy pale ales and hopped lagers for anyone just after something cold. Past pours have included a grapefruit IPA and a winter melon ale, which is about as Singaporean as a beer gets. Ask what has just gone on and start there. There are natural wines, a short cocktail list and non-alcoholic options for whoever is driving.

What to eat

A small kitchen at the back sends out bar food with a local accent. The 2024 menu included wasabi wedges dusted with sour plum powder, beef tacos and miso chicken burgers; menus move, so treat those as a guide to the style rather than a promise. The wedges are the kind of thing you order for the table and then guard.

How to do it well

Tyrwhitt Road has filled up with cafés and bakeries around it, but after dark Druggists is still the street's living room. It opens from late afternoon on weekdays and mid-afternoon at weekends, closing earlier on Sunday, so Saturday is the long session and Sunday the short one. Bendemeer and Lavender MRT are each roughly a 10-minute walk. Bring friends with opinions about IPAs, take a marble table and let the taps decide whether you move on.

Good to know Open daily from late afternoon (earlier at weekends); check the official site or Druggists' social channels for current hours. Tasters are chargeable. Bendemeer and Lavender MRT are each roughly a 10-minute walk.

Druggists | 119 Tyrwhitt Road, Singapore 207547 | Nearest MRT: Bendemeer, Lavender