New Pop City cocktail bar by Jigger & Pony feels like a choose-your-own-adventure for imbibers

The team behind Singapore’s top bar Jigger & Pony has just opened a new cocktail bar — its first fresh opening in six years — right in the heart of Raffles Place.

Located where its rum-focused concept Sugarhall used to stand, Pop City x Pony is Japanese-inspired, and brings together elements of “pop” or music, and “city” in the form of urban fashion, style, and creativity.

The name is also a play on the Japanese “city pop” music genre, which was widely popular in the 1970s to 1980s. 

If you’re wondering what that sounds like, you’d probably have heard semblances of this genre on TikTok, in the form of Stay with Me by Miki Matsubara, which was released in 1980. 

The bar’s entrance is up a fire-escape staircase at The Quadrant at Cecil Street, a heritage building that also used to house the now-closed Rosemead. So walking into the second-floor bar can feel like you’ve gone through a portal, right into a bar in Japan itself.

Walking into the second-floor bar — up a fire-escape staircase of The Quadrant, a heritage building at Cecil Street — feels like you’ve gone through a portal, right into a bar in Japan.

Right into four different bars, in fact.

On first glance, the space looks like a modern take of a Japanese whisky bar, with elements of a classic Japanese kissaten and its dark-wood finishings, but look closely and you’ll see the subtle distinctions.

Pop City has four different zones, with their own unique touches — and your experience at Pop City can vary depending on which area you sit. 

Pick your zone at this cocktail bar

There’s the Tasting Commons, decked with loungey plush seating, vinyl records, and a countertop with Hibiki bottles on display — this area’s great for bigger groups, or even more intimate conversations.

We hear there are plans for the countertop to turn into a DJ platform, too. 

To the left of the entrance is Bar Mixtape, a nod to the small and cosy Tokyo bars that dot the iconic city. It comes with its own bar counter (where we understand the bar will eventually serve up simple highballs), and shelves of CDs and whiskies. 

There are even CD players, so you can pick out a CD that catches your fancy, pop it into the player, and let it soundtrack your bar experience. 

It’s perfect for those who love music, or just someone who needs a little peace and quiet with their tipple.

But if you’re the opposite and love the vibrancy of the floor, then swing on over to either the After Hours Salon, which takes up most of the bar floor with zaisu-inspired seating (Japanese floor chairs) and kimono-themed fabric finishes, or the Byobu Bar, Pop City’s crowning glory.

The latter is named after byobu (decorative Japanese folding screens) and even features a hand-painted, embroidered one that’s inspired by Japan’s 24 solar terms, which the country used before adopting the Gregorian calendar in the 1800s, behind the bar counter.

Sipping and munching on Pop City Singapore’s menu 

Drinks on Pop City’s menu are divided into two segments — “pop” and “city” — and have a special seasonal section. 

The first part comprises drinks that are more vibrant, innovative, and dare we say, trendy, with a hojicha espresso martini (S$25) being the most eye-catching of the lot. 

The drinks are inspired by various Japanese music genres, and artistes — the hojicha drink being a nod to Japanese DJ and producer ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U, for example. The cocktail’s moniker on Pop City’s menu is stylised as such, too — as HØJ1CHA €SPR€$$Ø MART1N1. 

Other muses in this section include J-pop singer Utada Hikaru, which inspired its easy-drinking yuzu whisky sour (S$27), and Mariya Takeuchi and her city-pop song Plastic Love, which inspired the delicious strawberry Love Punch (S$26), with strawberry, basil, and sherry. 

The “city” side of things spotlights Japanese design, so you’ll see cocktails inspired by popular Japanese brands such as fashion labels Muji and Auralee. 

Auralee is a Japan-born brand, founded by Ryota Iwai, known for its high-quality, functional, and timeless pieces. 

The ensuing matcha ramos fizz (S$27) reflects this, with its crisp layers and clean flavours, combining whisky with matcha, jasmine, cream, lemon, egg white, sparkling sake, and absinthe. 

Die-hard Jigger & Pony fans will also need to try the Pop City sour (S$26), a pretty-in-purple take on the whisky sour, tinged with sour plum and purple shiso. It’s dainty, tasty, and very addictive — and reflective of the group’s usual line-up of drinks. 

What really stopped me in my tracks, though, was its shiitake mushroom negroni (S$26), one of its two seasonal drinks, based on Japan’s solar terms. 

As a negroni lover, this was a no-brainer for me, but the winter solstice-inspired drink came with a mushroom-shaped langues de chat cookie. 

Not only were the cookies made in-house by the Pop City team, but they were also modelled after the iconic Japanese shiroi koibito snack — it’s hard enough making mushroom-shaped cookies, but to model them after the popular thin buttery slices? 

That’s pure attention to detail, befitting of a Japanese-themed bar. 

Drinks aside, its food line-up impresses, too, though it must be said that Pop City shares a kitchen with Barrel, the Hibiki-themed restaurant that sits below it (which we had tried a day before our Pop City visit). 

Its nosh selection is understandably more compact, though.

Some highlights for us were the mochi cheese nuggets with miso curry sauce (S$12 for five pieces), the truffle edamame with shio kombu (S$15), pork katsu sando with shiso coleslaw (S$28), and most definitely, the tonkotsu ramen (S$15). 

Yes, you read that right, you can get luscious tonkotsu ramen to go with your drinks at this cocktail bar.

I don’t know about you, but piping-hot broth hits differently after several drinks, and at S$15 this is a value-for-money bowl, indeed, with thick pork slices, springy noodles, and a slurp-worthy creamy broth. 

It’s been a number of years since the Jigger & Pony Group has had a new opening in Singapore, but Pop City clearly shows that Singapore’s top cocktail group still has the winning formula to a great night out down pat.

With another concept in the works — a Korean-themed one by its creative director Uno Jang, who most recently also won Bartender’s Bartender at the World’s 50 Best Bars 2025 — slated to open early next year, 2026 already looks like it’s off to a promising start for the drink-lovers. 

If you’re keen for a peek, we hear vibey, music-centric restaurant-bar Offtrack is hosting a pre-opening guest shift for the concept, titled BOP or Bartenders of Pony, in January 2026. 

This was a hosted tasting. 

Still hungry or thirsty? Check out Barrel, which sits below Pop City, or check out McDonald’s upcoming new drop for 2026.