Note: This venue is now closed.
Chances are you’re likely to stumble upon some unsavoury activities while wandering around Desker Road’s ubiquitous back lanes, but one of Singapore’s oldest and most notorious red light districts is also now home to Bellwethers, a bistro bar that shares the same alley as music/dining hotspot Broadcast HQ on Rowell Road.
The cramped corner shophouse unit has just about enough room for a bar counter and a few tables, so the owners have transformed the back alley into an unorthodox alfresco area. We’re told there are plans to convert it into a full-day bistro in the future – at the moment, food’s just a temporary distraction.
In a playful reference to the area’s sordid past, you’ll get to munch on cheekily-named snacks such as the curry-flavoured Desker Drumlets ($12) and sambal-glazed Balls of Fury made of sotong ($12), as well as more conventional ones like gold nuggets ($10) and spicy wedges ($9) that comes with your choice of two sauces (there’s a selection of 11 in total, from peri peri and Thai sweet chilli to salsa cheese).
More impressive is their range of decent priced beers – Mac’s Great White ($10/pint), Pure Blonde ($8/bottle), Steinlager Pure ($8/ bottle) and Magners Pear Cider ($10/bottle) – classic cocktails (all $15) and house wines ($9/glass).
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