Modern Japanese restaurant and cocktail bar Maison Ikkoku has reopened its Kandahar Street premise with a brand new look. Following a renovation, the 12-year-old restaurant-bar—now called Maison Ikkoku 2.0—also has a revamped menu with new items featured.
Nostalgia is at the heart of the bar’s makeover, informing everything from the bar’s decor (a back bar art installation is reminiscent of the love locks on the Pont des Arts in Paris, but replaces the locks with spirit bottles), to the extravagant bartending style inspired by ‘80s and ‘90s cocktail culture. It should count as no surprise, then, that the 1988 film Cocktail starring Tom Cruise serves as inspiration for the bar’s new slant to mixology.
Also known as the “Gin Composer”, founding bartender Ethan Leslie Leong, has created a brand new gin for the revamped menu. Distilled in-house, the “Milk and Honey Gin” draws inspiration from the Holy Bible, with its ingredients of honeycomb, milk, juniper berries, and a curated selection of botanicals. Also new is a special guest experience offered to help gin-lovers create their own bespoke bottles of gin, which they can then take home, setting this bar experience apart from any other.
