SOME secret bars are more secret than others. Getting to this one begins with a reservation. Show up at a colonial black-and-white bungalow on Scotts Road to be welcomed by a host and head upstairs. Along the second-floor corridor is a wall panel with a discreet marking: KAKURE.

Behind that lies The Bar Kakure. Filling the window-lined space is the 10-seater bar itself; against the wall are a pair of two-seater tables. Bartender Kazuhiro Chii prefers serving customers at the bar, so he “can understand the person who orders it”.

Chii eschews terms such as “mixologist” – implying someone who just mixes cocktails – in favour of just being known as a bartender. “The ‘bartender’ is the ‘tender of the bar’,” he explains, managing everything from cocktails to the music.