Long Bar

The national cocktail was designed so nobody could tell you were drinking.

Everyone should drink one Singapore Sling at Long Bar, once, and the trick is to arrive when the wait is shortest. It is walk-in only, so there is no booking your way round the queue. Raffles itself suggests 11am to 11.30am, mid-afternoon between 2pm and 3.30pm, or after 9pm on weekdays. Bring visiting friends, a curious date or anyone who likes a drink with a backstory, and treat it as one round with a story attached rather than a whole night out.

A drink in disguise

According to Raffles, the Sling was first mixed here in 1915 by bartender Ngiam Tong Boon and designed to look like fruit juice, because women were discouraged from drinking alcohol in public. A rosy glass of gin, pineapple, lime, curaçao, Bénédictine, grenadine and cherry liqueur let them order something stronger than it appeared. The hotel now makes it with locally distilled Brass Lion Singapura Gin.

As with most good legends, the details are argued over. Cocktail historian David Wondrich has suggested the drink dates to the 1890s and only became attached to Raffles later, and the original recipe was lost after the hotel stopped serving it in the 1930s. The version poured now was reconstructed from a note left by a 1936 visitor. None of which has dented its reputation.

The room and the peanuts

Long Bar once sat in the hotel's lobby and moved to the adjoining arcade during the renovation that ended in 1991, then was refreshed again when Raffles reopened in 2019. The current room is two storeys of earthy colour and rattan, inspired by 1920s Malayan life, with plantation motifs along the counter.

Then the peanuts. You crack them at the bar and brush the shells on to the floor, a habit the hotel traces to the planters who gathered here at weekends in the early 1900s. It is a Long Bar custom, not a Singapore one, so leave it at the door. If anyone in your party has a peanut allergy, talk to staff before you settle in.

How to do it well

Not drinking? There is a Singapore Sling Zero made with Tanqueray 0.0%, so nobody has to sit out the ritual. The dress code is smart casual. Use the North Bridge Road entrance to Raffles Arcade; City Hall is the nearest MRT. And 27 June is Singapore Sling Day, which the hotel has marked by swapping a whole pineapple for a free Sling for the first 100 guests, which is as close as the Sling gets to hawker prices.

Good to know Walk-ins only; Raffles lists opening from 11am daily, with last seating 10.30pm Sunday to Wednesday and 11.30pm Thursday to Saturday, and a smart-casual dress code. Find it at #02-01 Raffles Arcade, 328 North Bridge Road, via the North Bridge Road entrance (City Hall MRT). Check the current menu and prices before you go.

After one Sling, somewhere quieter: our bars for conversation.

Long Bar | #02-01 Raffles Arcade, 328 North Bridge Road, Singapore 188719 | Nearest MRT: City Hall