From top: La Rouge’s
Fish House Punch;
Tiga’s retro style;
Shehab Mafuz of
Atas serves a
Tambun Nobility;
lemongrass-infused
beer and a toddy
stout with local
coffee at Kikilalat.TRAVELANDLEISUREASIA.COM 25
BACK TO THE FUTURE
Tiga (fb.com/thetigabar; drinks from
R M30) means “three” in Malay, and it’s
presumably named after the lane where
the bar is located, which was once
where third wives of tin magnates and
other well-to-do men resided. The
space resembles a rough-around-the-
edges 1950s shophouse, down to the
communal washrooms, now stocked
with Aesop toiletries. Grab a seat, and
have a taste of bartender Alvin Au
Yong’s Concrete Jungle, Tiga’s riff on
the Jungle Bird, Malaysia’s national
cocktail. With the Concrete Jungle,
local flavors and condiments dominate.
There’s sesame rum, curry Aperol, port
wine and a dash of homemade syrup.
Owner Sunny Lim’s ethos for Tiga is
a crafted sepia-tinged frame of what
life was in the 1950s, a time when
partygoers inspired by the Rat Pack
made efforts to dress up. One can only
imagine what these folks will think of
the Market Club, a dessert-like
concoction of coconut palm, lemon,
pandan-layered gin and egg white. If
the building’s roughly hewn cement
walls could talk, they would probably
say “bring it on.”
HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT
Over in New Town, walk through a
black steel door (for directions, ask the
burger flipper), amble up a flight of red
lamp–lit stairs in a corner shophouse
next to Konda Kondi Cafe, and you’ll
arrive at Atas (fb.com/atas183; drinks
from RM30). Looking like a 1970s home
down to the Singer sewing machine
and chintzy tropical wallpaper, this
speakeasy-slash-living-room draws
crowds of the city’s slouchy college
party kids in regulation tropical-hipster
uniforms of colorful Hawaiian shirts
and baggy pants—the baggier the
better. They come for bartender
Shehab Mafuz’s creations. He mines
local ingredients like pomelo and
pandan syrups, edible flowers, along
with Martell Noblige and peach liqueur
to create the Tambun Nobility. The
crowd here doesn’t take itself too
seriously. The lack of pretention is as
refreshing as the fruity Thrift Store
Hipster, a potent combination of blanco
tequila, hazelnut liqueur, pineapple
juice and spearmint syrup, best enjoyed
with hip hop from the in-house DJ.QUIRKY COCKTAILS, UP COLD
I nearly got lost getting to Falim, a
satellite town known for its heavy
industry. Development has come so
hard and so fast that Google Maps has
had difficulty keeping up. This is also
where La Rouge (fb.com/
larougecocktailbar; drinks from RM30),