Best Places in Clarke Quay?

[JR8]

@JR8... Do a clarke quay on boat quay? what do you mean?

Perhaps you don't know, but Clarke Quay was 'redeveloped' in the 90's. What that involved was in fact demolishing the whole neighbourhood of historic buildings, and replacing it with <sarcasm> things SG is short of, like glass and steel office and condo towers, and restaurants etc. </sarcasm>.

Oh and they rebuilt a mini-pastiche of the neighborhood they had destroyed in a Disneyland 'real' kinda way (real as long as you don't look too hard) which is the nighlife complex to which you refer.

I have heard that this same kind of demolition and vulgar rebuilding is going to be done to another historic neighborhood, Boat Quay.

Hence my comment 'welcome to plastic-land'

[jsc20]

@BillyB.. Sorry but what do you mean by OT?

orchard towers

[AngelJoy]

never a fan of Clark Quay.......

[ElHani]

I wasn't really a fan of Clarke quay cuz of the crowd and wannabes. Only about recently i went there and i saw the event they had at the centre stage. people were dancing all over. =.=" Like, it's no longer, "you wanna dance in this club? or that club?" Let's just dance outside! lol. I think most of us would have the impression that clarke quay are bustled with expats or youngsters wannabe gangsters. But if you divert you attention to the place itself and you purpose of going there, you will enjoy it as much as i do. =)=)=)

[rajagainstthemachine]

Clark quay hehehehe? even Ebola hit Sierra Leone sounds more interesting than CQ. if you can get past the stench of sweat, vomit, feelings of claustrophobia and disgust, one can then be tempted to buy a beer there, in which case I would end up in say a place like China One or crazy elephant. I don't think the rest of the watering holes there even warrant a visit.

Other options?
some one mentioned No.5 in emerald hill, thats a nice bar, mutton samosas there are quite delicious and so is ice cold beer next door.
There's a pub on Bras Basah road Molly roffeys or something, exorbitant prices but not a bad place to grab one beer and gtfo after baulking at an 18$ pint. or 2 pints for 26 or something
Ann Siang Hill was another interesting place but once again very exorbitant.
There is one place I really loved and that was Buyan a Russian restaurant/bar good vodkas and beers there, I'd recommend going there for drinks and authentic Russian/Ukrainian food.

[JR8]

Hey RAJM, you're a muso, so you'll know the band Ten Years After. Well you're 40% of the way there on this topic (above reply) maaaahn

My take on the Quays vs 20yrs ago?
Then:
Robertson/Riverside Quay/Walk, I don't recall that they existed at all then, well not in any way that you'd recognise them now.
Clarke Quay did (IIRC) but it was much lower key (sorry). More quay-side like Boat Quay now, not that huge F+B arcade behind.
Boat Quay did, but it only stretched a short way along up-river. Almost all the action was focused on the first 5-6 pubs at the Raffles Sq. end, and then it very quickly fizzled out as you headed up-river. Everything of note in that first 50-80M or so.

Meanwhile:
Clarke Quay was to some large extent demolished, and it got rebuilt. The covered arcade on the shore-side is almost all new-build new (AFAIK).
Boat Quay F+B has extended 2-3* as far upriver as it used to be.
'Robertson/Riverside' started to come on tap.

Now: Clarke Quay is being throttled via impossible rent hikes and is dying a death.
Rob/Riv, ... if that's your thing great.
Boat Quay is somewhat busier, but it maintains the same kind of underlying feel, re: outlets, mix of customers as it did back then.

Time to knock it down then?

[ecureilx]

Hey RAJM, you're a muso, so you'll know the band Ten Years After. Well you're 40% of the way there on this topic (above reply) maaaahn

Pre demolition, I recall a very nice north Indian Restaurant, Bhukara ? And a South Indian club, the latter complete with regular fights and cops running after trouble makers, in the old Clark Quay, as well as the Sunday Flea Market (where I spent a few weekends raising money for charity ... and also spent a bit of my own money buying second hand matchbox cars ...)

And the Daimaru next door..

Post renovation it has become a hyper expensive place ...

[Addadude]

Ah nostalgia.

Harry's back when it was only on Boat Quay, co-owned by American Jim Gelpi, and had the very execellent Chromazone as the house band. The Sunday night jazz jams were great fun.

Jazz Upstairs @ Southbridge Road, more local in flavour (the local guy -retired architect and jazz lover/vibraphonist - who set it up felt that Harry's had too much white/expat favoritism going on) and expensive. But they had some excellent musicians playing there regularly.

(Today, the closest thing you'll find to the original Harry's jazz scene is at the jazz club in the The Sultan Hotel on Jalan Sultan.)

I only liked Crazy Elephant (when the band Heritage was playing) at Clarke Quay during the 90's. The rest of the place was meh.

During the late 90's Upstairs at Number 5 was a great venue for acoustic live music with some very talented locals. Presided over by Spencer Goh, a lot of the guys who are doing well today got their start there including Jack & Rai and Han Jin. SMS' late brother in law used to do the occasional performance there too. The crowd upstairs was primarily locals and long-stay/localized expats. Quite the contrast with the blatant SPG scene downstairs.

Aonther place that I really liked was Papa Joe's in Peranakan Place. Somehow it had the right blend of good live music, dancers on podiums, locals, expats, bewildered tourists and a dash of sleaze to make for a fun night out.

On the East Coast, I took a liking to Jantzen's Pub in the old Paramount Shopping Centre. Jantzen's was the cleanest Filipino bar in the place and Dixie Ferdinands (ex local band Gypsy) did a great one man band show there.

But probably my favourite pub of all was the much missed Roomful of Blues in Prinsep Street. A great neighborhood style bar where the barman (Sunny - voted Singapore's best bar tender) always remembered what you were drinking, Roomful had great live acoustic music courtesy of Gilbert and a very friendly vibe with loads of regulars. Eventually Steve the owner got fed up with the constant rental increases and closed shop, retiring to live in Chang Mai.

[JR8]

I picked up a leaflet for a food event 'A wok down memory lane', 24-7/2-8, and it reads as follows (typos are quoted 'as is')...

'Join us at Singapore Favourite Food Village as we recreate the charm of the long-lost makan place from from the past - Ellenborough Market.'
Venue? 'Read Bridge, Clarke Quay'

Not much comes up on Google re: that market, but one or two hits suggest Clarke Quay was built on the site of it.... hmmm

[the lynx]

I picked up a leaflet for a food event 'A wok down memory lane', 24-7/2-8, and it reads as follows (typos are quoted 'as is')...

'Join us at Singapore Favourite Food Village as we recreate the charm of the long-lost makan place from from the past - Ellenborough Market.'
Venue? 'Read Bridge, Clarke Quay'

Not much comes up on Google re: that market, but one or two hits suggest Clarke Quay was built on the site of it.... hmmm

That's the name of a brunch place in Swissotel at Merchant Road!

[ecureilx]

Aonther place that I really liked was Papa Joe's in Peranakan Place. Somehow it had the right blend of good live music, dancers on podiums, locals, expats, bewildered tourists and a dash of sleaze to make for a fun night out.
.

Papa Joes, memories, including the time a friend got arrested and all of us had no clue it was him till the next day

Don't forget MS, Next Page, Last Page, dunno which - one was a gay bar, cheeky monkeys and their 3$ vodka whiskey promo (and seeing tourists being refused credit card payment for 3$ ... )

Devils bar with 1 for 1 and 2 for the 1 ... (where Hadi Mirza and Raw Energy used to play ... )

John Molina and his high tech disaster Thumper ... finger print scanned for running up tabs, and when you exit and pay, finger print not found, so ... quite few customers never paid ..

:D

Canto Pop at marina south (being the only place to be open till 6 Am) .. yep, Indian looking guys and Malays and a Caucasian in a very very Canto Disco... any port in a storm ...

Sparks at taka ... crashed Coco Lee's party - as few friends had powerful membership there.

[JR8]

Don't forget MS, Next Page, Last Page, dunno which - one was a gay bar,

I was a regular down at Next Page/Last Page, over on Jln Sultan Moh. near Zouk. Niether was gay though, it used to be a place to pull SIA dollies... or at least try to

The vibe was a place where locals and expats, who were 'in the know' used to go, far away from the crowds of the Quays.

What about Saxophone Bar at Cuppage Terrace.... that used to be a really chilled out spot, and just off Orchard next to emerald Hill.

[ecureilx]

I was a regular down at Next Page/Last Page, over on Jln Sultan Moh. near Zouk. Niether was gay though, it used to be a place to pull SIA dollies... or at least try to .

Maybe another one .. or next page had gay nights can't remember ...

But definitely not Cheeky Monkeys or Madam W.

Amusing that the mega churches protesting Pink Dot while gay bars have been in existence for so long

Btw, gone are the days flight crew on rest going out. And get spotted in places along with pretend plane jockeys impressing SPGs ..

Times are bad few crew want to step out and spend money, plus quite a few carriers park their crew in far away hotels like Changi Marriot or Roxy...

[JR8]

Next Page had a big intimidating lesbian DJ. I had friends visiting from NYC and had one (unknowingly) put in a track request for the then chart-hit 'It's different for girls - Joe Jackson'. I think she got a death-stare back... hehe...

Otherwise the crowd was similar to say the Penny Black, 50+% expats, plus locals who likely worked in expat-like circles. Then of course some opportunistic SPGs.

The SIA girls were regulars there. They had many friends in the wider expat scene. It depended on their rota, but there were often 5-6 of them down the back on the pool tables. They were fully off duty, between rota, rather than on brief 'rest stops' as such.

The Long Bar at Raffles was a popular place with foreign air-crew. They were on rest stops between flights, but also dressed down. We (friends) met up there once in a while and used to play a game and bet on these tables of colleagues; 'Guess the airline'. Air Italia was easy, since they all looked like they were fresh off a catwalk and immaculately dressed. A group of gnarled old aunties was likely an American airline. However if the latter included a couple of clearly gay men then it was likely British Airways... lol. A table of 4-6 with very diverse races... then that suggested a Gulf/UAE airline... etc...