MOVED: Spiffy Dapper has moved to Amoy St, and its sister bar, Kacang Putih, is at Boat Quay.


Spiffy Dapper, on the second floor of an Indian restaurant, overlooks the Singapore River and on a good night, you can see a fuzzy moon, beaming into the bar. Inspired by the jazz age, the bar wants to recreate the audacity of the 1920s. When we were there, we didn’t really get the 1920s ambience from the decor although the music seemed accurate.

The bar is managed by owner-bartender George, who used to run the defunct Daybed bar. The two cocktails we had were quite good. I preferred Moll on the Barn ($20) which, the menu states, means “gangster’s girl on the run.” I have never heard of the phrase before. “Moll,” I get it, it’s short for “Molly,” a common angmoh lian‘s name. “Barn” implies “housing,” a kind of pregnancy–so “Moll on the Barn” may be a pregnant lian? In any case, the drink was delicious and very fragrant. The dark rum was buoyed by burnt orange, the main flavor of the drink, but there were undertones of dark chocolate and creamy low fat milk. So delicious I a teetotaler downed it in minutes.

The Ex preferred Bee’s Knees Chassis ($20), a take on lychee martini, because it was more potent. But I didn’t get it because I couldn’t taste lychee and there was no fruit in the drink although the ingredients of the drink are lychee and pineapple compote. That said, it was still yummy, a sharp and complex tastiness but wasn’t as layered as Moll on the Barn.

Although the decor can be improved, the bar is, in other areas, dressed for success: the drinks were excellent, the friendly bartender really made us feel at home and music was nice. All Spiffy Dapper needs now is Lady Luck to bring the crowd in.

The Spiffy Dapper

61 Boat Quay, 2nd Floor Singapore 049849
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T: 8233 9810
M-F: 5pm-12am

Rating: 3.125/5 stars

PS: Thanks Jon and George for the invite.

Written by A. Nathanael Ho.