Singapore has no shortage of places to drink well, but the new whisky-focused bar at Resorts World Sentosa’s Crockfords Tower is something stranger and more ambitious. It’s called Horatio, named not after a historical figure but a fictional globetrotter—Horatio Fairchild—whose travels through the world’s great distilling regions provide the narrative frame for the space. The conceit may sound whimsical, but in execution it feels more like myth-making: a character who embodies adventure, curiosity, and the whisky culture’s eternal hunger for story.
Three Distinct Spaces: Retail, Parlor, and Enclave
Horatio isn’t one room but three. Guests first pass through The Retail Emporium, a glassy chamber lined with rare and exclusive bottles, the sort of place where collectors can acquire liquid history or tailor a tasting flight to their own obsessions. Beyond it lies The Main Parlour, the bar proper, where the menu—titled Trails & Tales—reads like a series of dispatches from Horatio’s imagined journeys. Finally, hidden away, there is The Enclave, a secret space that opens only by invitation. It serves rare cocktails, each one wrapped in intrigue, an additional layer of narrative for those who like their spirits with mystery.
Cocktails That Tell Global Tales
The Trails & Tales menu is built around twelve cocktails, each linked to a region and a story. Kueh Kueh Spirits is a Singaporean fable in liquid form: Bourbon meets palm sugar, coconut, calamansi, winter melon, and salted egg yolk, inspired by Horatio’s encounter with a Peranakan bartender in Katong. Scotland contributes The Highland Hermit, a mixture of Scotch, heather honey, pear, lemon, thyme, and shortbread, its story involving an illicit still hidden in a cave, passed down by a shepherd named Angus. These drinks do more than showcase technique—they create a sense that you’re drinking a narrative, each sip a chapter.
A Back Bar of Rare and Collectible Bottles
Of course, whisky is the heart of the house. The back bar lists over 300 rare bottles, from The Macallan The Reach 81 Year Old to Karuizawa Omoiyari 36, Port Ellen 1978 43YO, and Brora 1977 45YO. Horatio has even gone so far as to purchase and bottle its own 1988 Macallan cask, staking a claim in whisky’s future as well as its past. While the focus is firmly on whisky, the bar doesn’t exclude other spirits. There are barrel-aged agaves, eaux-de-vie, and amaros for those who want to wander further afield.
Food and Pairings with Global Influence
Food is treated as part of the journey. Plates range from pan-fried Italian sardines to wagyu beef skewers, each dish designed to echo the global influences that run through the cocktails.
Horatio’s Place in Singapore’s Whisky Culture
Andreas Reich, senior vice-president of food and beverage at Resorts World Sentosa, calls Horatio “not just a bar; it’s an immersive journey.” He places it alongside other recent high-profile openings at the resort—Pierre Hermé Paris, Sugarra, KA-MON—as part of a program of culinary elevation. The tone is polished, but the underlying ambition is clear: to make Sentosa not only a destination for luxury leisure but also a serious stop on the global whisky trail.
In a city already fluent in cocktail culture, Horatio feels like something rarer—a bar with its own mythology, its own invented traveler, and a belief that whisky isn’t just to be drunk but lived inside of.
For more information, head over to the bar’s official website.
Last month, Atlas launched its own London Dry Gin to mark Singapore’s 60th year.
