Cocktails and Shots

09/09/2026

In six years there has never been another bartender behind this bar. For one night there will be.

We’re part of Penang Cocktail Week Penang Cocktail Week this year, and on Wednesday 16 September The Riff District are coming up from Bangsar to work the night with me. Malaysian-forward drinks, run by someone who left another career to do this — same problem, different city.

From 8pm till sold out. Cintra Street, behind the bookshelf. It’s a small room and it doesn’t get bigger for this.

03/09/2026

People apologise to me for not drinking much. Every week, someone sits down and leads with it, like it’s bad news.

It isn’t. “Something light” tells me as much as naming a spirit does, and the drink gets built the same way either way. So does the one with no alcohol in it.

Nobody here is counting what you’ve had. Come find us behind the bookshelf.

31/08/2026

Eight posts ago I started writing about the people who come in here. A woman on her own, a couple having a hard night, someone who couldn’t find the door.

What I didn’t plan for was how many of them came back. That’s the part I can’t take credit for — you can build a room, you can’t make anyone return to it.

Closed today. Back tomorrow from 7.

31/08/2026

25/08/2026

Six weeks without posting. The bar was open the whole time.

There’s one of me — behind the bar and out here — and for a while the bar took all of it. The people who came in during those weeks didn’t come because of anything I put on Instagram. That’s the part I keep thinking about.

Back on here now. Open tonight from 7.

21/08/2026

Six years of never handing anyone a menu. Tomorrow’s the exception.

12 March 2020 in the alley. Then this door. Both of them count.

Restaurant Morpheus, in our room, for one night.

RM188 with two cocktails · RM88 food only · 8:30pm · reservation needed

Cintra Street. Push the bookshelf.

29/07/2026

We didn't plan the tagline. It came from a guest.

Six months in, a regular said coming here felt like going home. I nodded, made their drink, and didn't say anything else.

But I thought about it the whole rest of the night. Because that's what I'd been trying to build. I just didn't have a word for it yet.

It's home. Not because the drinks are good. Because you're known here.

We kept using it because nothing else was as accurate. 🖤

27/07/2026

Two nights in Penang. Business trip. Found the bar by accident. Changed their plan for the evening.

They almost kept walking. Saw the bookshelf. Stopped. Pushed it. Decided in three seconds that whatever was on the other side was worth the detour.

They stayed two hours. Changed their flight to the morning instead. Texted someone back home to say they'd found something. I don't know what they said.

Some people find this place when they're not looking for anything. That's when you find the things that stick.

If Penang is on your itinerary — so is this. 🖤

22/07/2026

Two guests. Same night. Same mood. Different drinks. Every time.

Not because we're showing off. Because no two people are the same, even when they feel exactly the same way. The mood is the starting point, not the formula.

Identical moods produce different drinks because identical moods still live inside different people. We build for the person, not the feeling.

Your drink doesn't exist yet. It will. 🖤

20/07/2026

They didn't tell anyone it was their birthday. The bar figured it out anyway.

It wasn't magic — it was a detail. Something they said in passing. The way they paused on a question. A small thing. But enough.

I didn't make a production of it. No announcement, nothing loud. Just a drink made to be exactly what that night needed to feel like.

Being seen doesn't require an audience. It just requires one person paying attention.

Happy birthday. Whenever it is. We'll remember. 🖤