Dempsey Hill’s AIR CCCC just lately hosted Roku Gin’s first-ever client pop-up expertise in Singapore. The one-weekend-only collaborative expertise — from 31 October to 2 November — noticed a fusion of Roku Gin’s meticulous Japanese craftsmanship with AIR CCCC’s creative, ingredient-led menu, promising company an immersive journey that highlights flavour and storytelling. The activation was designed to be a multi-sensory journey, the place gentle, music and culinary artistry intersect to create a holistic expertise for the company — forming a brand new gin tasting expertise.
On the coronary heart of the occasion was a curated tasting expertise guided by Beam Suntory Malts S.E.A Model Ambassador, Mark Tay — who designed the cocktails to enrich AIR CCCC’s menu. Tay explains, “Pairing all the time works one among 3 ways: heightening flavour, cleaning the palate or creating concord. For this menu, we explored all three.”
Drawing inspiration from AIR’s rooftop backyard and his personal Peranakan roots, Tay developed cocktails utilizing regionally sourced elements resembling lemongrass, pandan, ginger and fowl’s-eye chilli. “For example, one cocktail impressed by the gin bitter incorporates pandan oil sure into syrup with sugar carbon. When paired with the shakshuka, the asam base brings out sweetness, the spice provides texture and the pandan lingers as an fragrant end. It’s not about complexity; it’s about stability, reminiscence and utilizing elements at their shun — their excellent second.” Tay likens the artistic course of to storytelling and goes on to elucidate that every drink carries a private reminiscence or cultural reference — inviting company to style not simply flavours, however uncover moments of heritage.
AIR CCCC’s Sous Chef Aiken Low echoes this philosophy of seasonality and respect for elements. “For our collaboration with Roku Gin, we curated a menu that celebrates elements at their peak, mixing recent components from our Backyard with flavours from throughout Southeast Asia. Every dish is thoughtfully paired with Roku’s cocktails, designed to enrich their floral and citrus notes whereas staying true to AIR’s philosophy of recent, balanced and punctiliously ready elements,” he says. Being a younger chef together with his personal recent views on native dishes, Chef Aiken was particularly tapped to work on the collaborative menu for the Tasting Room in addition to the meals pairing menu on the Pop-Up Café. Past technical execution, he introduced a way of playfulness to the menu, experimenting with lesser-known regional elements like guaculim and torch flowers.
“Roku Gin’s idea of shun actually impressed us within the kitchen,” Aiken provides. “It’s about utilizing elements at their absolute peak and even contemplating what to do with them after their peak — fermenting, preserving or remodeling them in ways in which spotlight their story.” From brunch picks like AIR Kaya Toast with house-made gula apong kaya and The Peranakan — a variation on a basic Gin Bitter — to dinner programs that includes Snapper Ceviche with pink guava and backyard herbs or Charred Spanish Mackerel with black bean sauce, the tasting menus showcased a variety of native culinary creativity.
Every course is paired with Roku Gin cocktails, together with the Roku Ginger Earl Gray — a nod to Dempsey’s colonial historical past — and the playful Coco-Groni — an area twist on the basic Negroni that evolves because the ice cream melts within the glass. “Each cocktail was paired to both spotlight or distinction the dishes in a approach that company may uncover one thing new with each chew,” Aiken explains. “It’s about creating moments of shock — when the primary sip adjustments the way in which you style the meals or vice versa.” The pairing technique was intentionally designed to shock the patron with contrasting textures, surprising flavour bridges and fragrant layering, encouraging company to “open up” their palates and uncover nuances in each food and drinks.
Aiken additionally shared the philosophy behind particular dishes: “Take the Snapper Ceviche with pink guava and backyard herbs — it’s a mixture that mirrors the botanical notes of Roku Gin. The acidity from the guava enhances the citrus within the gin, whereas the herbs tie again to AIR’s rooftop backyard. Even the textures are designed to work together with the drink — gentle, recent, however layered.”
“Working carefully with Mark was eye-opening,” he provides. “Gin isn’t just a drink — it is also an ingredient. I needed to rethink how flavours work together, how botanicals like yuzu or sakura can affect a dish and the way delicate notes in a cocktail can shift the notion of the meals. It taught me to be extra experimental but exact — to search out concord the place you may not count on it.”
Tay notes that the collaboration is about extra than simply pairing Gin cocktails with native delicacies. “In the end, this partnership is about cultural alignment — supporting native creativity, sustainability and craftsmanship, all whereas telling our story by expertise.”
He provides that the pop-up displays a shift in how clients interact with spirits at present. Shoppers are eager to grasp storytelling, fairly than mere consumption, making a platform for manufacturers like Roku to convey craft and narrative collectively. Roku Gin’s philosophy of shun — consuming elements at their seasonal peak — is the guideline behind each plate and pour. As Tay explains, “We each consider in high quality, heritage and storytelling. Roku [Gin] turned the glue connecting AIR’s culinary imaginative and prescient and our beverage philosophy. It’s about evolution, not waste. Precision meets the impermanence of nature.”
Company explored The Garden at Stage 1’s Pop-Up Café, providing gentle bites and cocktails such because the Calamansi Bar Fold or Pineapple Profiterole, alongside a Fizz Bar serving Roku Gin Fizzes with flavours like popsicle, coconut, yuzu and lychee. For one night time solely, The Different Room’s Nikolas Dotko took over the Fizz Bar, including a dynamic factor to the gastronomic expertise.
The collaboration additionally displays a broader pattern within the F&B business, the place lifestyle-led activations join premium spirits to fashionable client experiences. Tay concludes, “Eating places depend upon elements from manufacturers; manufacturers depend upon producers and distilleries. When either side worth craftsmanship, the result’s excellence. These collaborations usually are not simply moments used for advertising and marketing functions — they’re long-term relationships that nurture culinary creativity and neighborhood.”
For each Roku Gin and AIR CCCC, this pop-up served as a template for future immersive experiences, demonstrating how a thoughtfully curated mix of flavours and narrative can go away an enduring impression on fashionable diners and drinkers alike.
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