Singlish is on the second floor of a building on East 13th Street, tucked above an Asian restaurant near Union Square. The name is a portmanteau of Singapore and English, the colloquial hybrid language spoken there, and the bar runs with that concept without being heavy-handed about it. It's a drinking parlor that happens to be built around the cocktail culture Singapore has developed over the last decade.

The drinks are where the concept actually lives. The Mai Lai, Mai Lai Wa, Mai Lai is a Singaporean riff on a martini, made with black powder gin, salted egg vermouth, and finished with a salted egg stuffed olive. The Hawker Highball goes tequila, ancho reyes, pineapple, orange, lime, and a measured splash of fish sauce. Bar bites include Teochew-style marinated duck tongue and Singlish fries with salted egg aioli. Non-alcoholic versions of the cocktail program exist for people who want the full experience without the alcohol.

Singlish was created by Salil Mehta and Colin Stevens, and it sits in a space that manages to be both intimate and properly laid-back, which is harder to pull off at the Union Square end of the Village than it sounds.