Inspired by heartland community centers, Telok Ayer Arts Club is the latest venture by the people behind the SPRMRKT brand: The new venue takes over the eatery’s former location on McCallum Street to transform it into a multi-concept space for music, art, food, and drinks.
Think themed club nights, creative residences by multi-disciplinary artists, and French-Mediterranean cuisine bolstered by reinvented cocktail classics.
Led by head chef Bertram Leong, the kitchen does dishes such as seafood fettuccine ($25) with Manila clams, crabs, and mussels; locally-bred spatchcock ($28), oven-roasted and served with bacon matchsticks; and oat-crusted lamb ribs ($32) slathered in béchamel.
On the drinks side, industry veteran Din Hassan takes the reins with regionally-inspired concoctions like Burma’s gin-centric Pegu Club ($20) and KL’s rum-based Jungle Bird ($20).
To set itself apart from the myriad restaurants and bars along the stretch, Telok Ayer Arts Club offers a space of cement floors and white/dark green walls as a playground for local and regional artists to let loose their creativity. Plus, CBD workers in the area can look forward to Friday evenings, when the place throws its “Office Hours” party, and upcoming daytime soirees on Saturdays (if you don’t mind heading back to your place of work on weekends, that is).
With its launch also comes its inaugural show, a site-specific commentary by Goh Abigail called in-inhabitations, which will run from now till Oct 23. The artist will document the transition of the space from rubble to Arts Club using reconfigured sounds made by items collected on-site, and as the project goes on, she will build on her work as an inhabitant of the place, allowing visitors to glimpse her process every Tuesday from 2:30pm to 4:30pm till Oct 9.
Other events on the line-up include Primordial Stance on Sept 11, a musical discourse on failure and experimentation led by local artist Ruben Pang, as well as an appearance behind the decks by electronic DJ/producer Michael Green, otherwise known as Fort Romeau, on Nov 16.
FIND IT:
Telok Ayer Arts Club is at 2 McCallum St
6221-0712. Mon-Sat 11am-11pm.
MRT: Tanjong Pagar
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