Barrel Story of Hibiki: whisky, wood and a Singapore vault

A bank vault is designed to separate what is inside from the life of the street. At Barrel Story of Hibiki in Singapore, that separation becomes a dining-room quality. A contained basement and an open-air terrace offer opposite ways to occupy one address.

The restaurant’s setting at 19 Cecil Street brings whisky into the building itself. Reclaimed wood from Suntory casks lines the walls of the former vault, making the material more than a decorative reference to a drinks list.

Eight seats behind the steel door

The Vault retains its original steel door and has eight seats. It is a private room, not simply another section of the main restaurant. Its scale makes it a distinct choice for a small gathering.

Retired barrel staves sit at the centre of the restaurant’s interior concept. Their previous use gives the wood a history within the project: the cask once held whisky; the room now holds the people who come to drink it.

That relationship is the design’s most legible idea. It does not require the visitor to know every detail of whisky production before understanding why this material belongs here.

Fire and a different kind of openness

On the first floor, the main dining room is organised around robata and wood-fire cooking. The restaurant describes seasonal seafood, meat and vegetables prepared in view of diners. The terrace provides roughly fifty outdoor seats, with a separate, less enclosed setting.

The drinks programme presents Hibiki as a highball, with water in mizuwari form, or over ice. Those are different preparations of a whisky, not three interchangeable names for the same serve. The restaurant also lists cocktails and wine.

Choose the room before constructing the evening around it. A private basement meal, a table by the cooking and an outdoor drink each asks something different of the address. The current official menu separates lunch, dinner, terrace and beverages, so consult the relevant list rather than assume one format applies throughout.

Another bar upstairs

Pop City is a separate Jigger & Pony Group cocktail bar on level two of the same building. Its programme draws on contemporary Japanese music, style and creative culture, with sixteen signature cocktails and a changing seasonal selection.

The interior, by Peter Silling & Associates, has four named zones: Byōbu Bar, Tasting Commons, Bar Mixtape and After Hours Salon. The division gives the upstairs venue its own internal geography rather than treating it as one uniform room.

It can be another stop within Cecil Street, but it is not an automatic extension of a Barrel reservation. Compare the two venues as separate appointments. The building’s appeal lies in these differences, from a steel-doored vault to a more socially open cocktail setting.

Barrel Story of Hibiki · 19 Cecil Street, Singapore. Pop City · Level 2 at the same address.

Barrel Story of Hibiki · @barrelhibiki
Pop City · @popcity.singapore