In a Singapore cocktail scene often obsessed with spectacle and self-importance, Players Table opens as a subversive little speakeasy where genuinely drinkable cocktails once again take centre stage.
Fatigued by the current state of Singapore’s highly-overwrought cocktail scene? Can’t say I blame you. These days far too many drinks arrive at the table dressed like theatre props — clouds of smoke, elaborate garnish scaffolding, menus that read like dissertations. Sometimes you’re even forced to endure half the evening listening to the “mixologist” prattle on his beloved fat-washing or redistilling techniques before he allows you to take a sip.
Then along comes a tiny little speakeasy like Players Table that does something near radical in this day and age — it remembers that cocktails are meant to be drunk.
Tucked discreetly within casual beer bar Witbier on 14 Aliwal Street, Players Table is low-lit and intimate, with warm timber tones and the sort of off-hand minimalism that suggests budgetary compromise as much as assured confidence. Formerly part of Witbier’s kitchen space, it has now been reshaped into an almost claustrophobically compact bar built for lingering conversations and slow evenings.
And that, perhaps, is its greatest strength.
Because unlike Singapore’s polished luxury cocktail temples, Players Table isn’t trying to impress you with scale. It is trying to seduce you with restraint.
Consider the cocktail menu. Here the concept is ridiculously simple. Every signature cocktail begins with two central ingredients — the “Players” — selected for chemistry, tension, and balance. Everything else is supporting cast. There is no avalanche of unnecessary flavours. No garnish requiring engineering certification. No smug performance art masquerading as hospitality.
Sure, bar manager Jasper Tan and co-founder Marcus Ezekiel Liow lean on technique behind the stick — think clarifications, infusions, aromatic layering — but they wear that technicality lightly. They don’t rub it in your face.
You have the likes of Strawberry x Hojicha, a simple-sounding whisky highball that combines earthy bitterness of the roasted tea dances delicately with lively tanginess of strawberry shrub. It arrives clean, cold, and dangerously easy to drink.
Then there’s Mango x Bird’s Eye Chili, a Margarita on holiday to the tropics, or Hazelnut x Earl Grey, a modern riff on the Old Fashioned with rich nutty notes. Otherwise the Osmanthus x Cognac is a liberal French twist on the Martini, tarted up with a floral lift from Italicus and rose water.
There is, admittedly, a certain irony in calling this approach refreshing when technically-driven minimalism has itself become fashionable. But Players Table does exactly that, with drinks that are precise without being self-important or preachy.
Hemingway once wrote that “prose is architecture, not interior decoration”. The same might be said of cocktails. If so, the architecture at Players Table is sound, even if the decoration has been politely shown the door.
And while too many cocktail bars in Singapore are trying desperately to become “experiences”, Players Table feels more like the kind of neighbourhood den where regulars go often enough to eventually forget to look at the menu.
Players Table
Address 14 Aliwal St, Singapore 199907 (Google Maps link)
Opening Hours 6pm to 12am Tuesdays to Saturdays; closed on Sundays and Mondays
Tel (65) 88661366
Instagram @players_table
Reservations walk-ins only
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