Danish craft brewer Mikkeller has relaunched in Singapore with a new taproom and distribution partner.
And in a fresh take on taproom locales, the ‘World’s Smallest Mikkeller Bar’ is located in Chinatown Complex Food Centre.
The hawker centre is Singapore’s largest, with over 200 stalls (including at least one Michelin Star recipient).
Hawker centres are Singapore’s modern take on open-air kopitiam (coffee shops), offering a wide range of affordable local dishes with communal seating.
“I am excited for Mikkeller to open up at this unique location in Singapore and to work with our new great partner to bring our beers to locals. Hawker stalls and street food is a part of Asian culture that I really love,” says Mikkel Bjergsø, Mikkeller’s Founder and Chief Creative Officer.
The World’s Smallest Mikkeller Bar is more evolution than revolution, however. The brewery has taken over the stall formerly occupied by Smith Street Taps & Friends since 2013, the first bar to offer craft beer in the island nation’s hawker centres.
Mikkeller’s has also announced a partnership with SST Trading Co. (the founders of the aforementioned Smith Street bar), a craft beer distributor founded by industry veterans Kuok Meng Chao and Daniel Goh.
Mikkeller is no stranger to Singapore: this is the Copenhagen-based firm’s third venue in Singapore.
The brewer launched its first Singapore-based taproom in 2016 (in what was the country’s first bar operated out of shipping containers).
They later moved to a second-floor shophouse on Purvis Street in 2018 in Singapore’s Bras Basah neighbourhood.
The latest incarnation offers 10 draft taps, alongside a range of packaged beers from international and local breweries.
The six square-metre stall creatively works around the spatial restrictions of a hawker centre, blending Scandanavian aesthetics with Singaporean touches like a bilingual signboard and a lightbox illustration featuring brewery’s mascot Henry in a Merlion costume.
Sylvester Fedor, previously Group Manager of Mikkeller Bangkok, is taking Mikkeller Singapore as General Manager.
“We hope customers will love the concept and encourage our search for another space to grow the Mikkeller brand locally.”
Mikkeller Bar Singapore is located at #02-058 (Green Zone), Chinatown Complex, 335 Smith Street, Singapore 050335. They are open Tuesday-Friday, from 5.30 pm to 10.00 pm and on Saturday, from 2.30 pm to 10.00 pm.
