Jigger & Pony Is Sweet, Velvety, Silky, Smashable And Its Creative Director Is Uno Jang, The Altos Bartenders’ Bartender 2025

Uno Jang didn’t plan to become a bartender. He planned to fix Formula 1 cars. Last night, Jigger & Pony Singapore’s creative director was named Altos Bartenders’ Bartender at The World’s 50 Best Bars 2025 – a coronation that had him live-interviewed, stone-cold sober (as requested), in front of over a thousand industry peers at Hong Kong’s Kai Tak Cruise Terminal.

No pre-ceremony whiskey sour to take the edge off. Just nerves, a ‘Numero Uno’ t-shirt, and the whole thing projected on the big screen. He’s come a long way from teenage dreams of being a car mechanic to creative director of one of Singapore’s most celebrated bars.

Born in 2012, Jigger & Pony brought classic cocktails back to Singapore’s buzzing bar scene with serious style. After six years shaking things up on Amoy Street, the bar moved to Amara Hotel in 2018, where it continues to reign as the city’s most celebrated watering hole. With a trophy cabinet that includes Asia’s Best Bar 2020, Best International Hotel Bar at the 2023 Tales of the Cocktail Spirited Awards, and current rankings of No. 9 globally and No. 3 in Asia, this is a bar that knows how to impress.

For four consecutive years, it’s held the crown as Singapore’s number one – and with their signature ‘convivial hospitality’ philosophy and magazine-style menus that reinvent the classics, it’s easy to see why the accolades keep rolling in.

Uno Jang Is Numero Uno

“If Jigger & Pony was a drink, it would be a whiskey sour,” Uno grins. “Sweet, velvety, silky, smashable. When you have it, you don’t need to think too much. You just enjoy it.”

He has reason to beam. The award was announced ahead of the event (alongside Lady Bee, who collected the Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award), giving him time to prepare that special t-shirt reveal. “I saw it online somewhere and ordered it. I’ve even hit up the producers for a collaboration,” he laughs. It’s that laugh – breathless, completely honest – that’s become one of his trademarks. It’s one of the reasons he won.

Starting From Zero

Uno’s refreshingly honest about his journey: stumbling into the industry, beginning his career at the sadly defunct Orgo, where he “started from zero,” working his way up to creative director at Jigger & Pony, and now this – lifting the Altos Bartenders’ Bartender Award at The World’s 50 Best Bars 2025.

When Uno – originally from Korea – rolled into Singapore in 2015, he’d planned to stay exactly 12 months before heading home. He’d studied car mechanics and dreamed of being part of a pit crew in Formula 1. At hospitality school, and then at Orgo, he had the dawning realization that people energized him more than cars.

Forward Motion 

He did a guest shift in Hong Kong and couldn’t keep track of what anyone was saying. “That’s when it clicked – if I wanted to level up, I needed to be somewhere that forced me to actually talk to guests, not just hide behind the stick.”

One senior bartender at Orgo took Uno under his wing, teaching him how to mix drinks and all the fundamental skills. By September 2017, Uno found himself at Jigger & Pony. “When Orgo closed, I’d already joined Jigger & Pony,” he remembers. “I felt a bit sad, but I needed to move forward.”

And he kept leaning into the things that scared him most. “Competitions,” he says with a frown. Introverted, with a shaky command of English, competitions were the ultimate source of trepidation. So he kept entering. “Diageo World Class, Bacardi Legacy…” he lists them off like vanquished foes. Aside from the nerves, they gave him a strange thrill. “I’d set up a camera rolling in front of me, and I’d prepare my cocktail competition entries and presentation ten times every day in the lead-up to the event.”

His role at Jigger & Pony kept evolving as his confidence and experience grew. “I still sometimes have to wash the glasses,” he laughs, mock-affronted. “I also get to introduce our menu-magazine, which I got to create – it’s really like a magazine. Certain cocktails, we explain technically in a certain way. It’s like engineering meets menu-making.”

Hacking Drinks At Jigger & Pony

Drinks like Jigger & Pony’s Champagne Ramos Gin Fizz perfectly exemplify their approach. “It’s what we want to achieve at Jigger & Pony,” he agrees. “We want to stay with the classics, but improve them in some way.” By that he means a sort of hacking – drilling down into the drink’s core components, expanding or amping up certain elements and removing others.

“A Ramos is gin-based, fizzy, fluffy, creamy, and yoghurty. However, there’s room to improve it. There’s very little alcohol character, only two layers. So we upgrade ours to four layers and five textures.”

“We start by removing all the water like sugar syrup – we dissolve the sugar directly into the gin. Then instead of using soda water, we use Telmont Brut Reserve Champagne, and increase the alcohol level higher than the classic. For textures and flavors – in the middle, for example, we have a red-colored layer of gin infused with sourdough bread and port wine. And on top, some bread crumble meringue.”

The drinks are just one part of what he does at Jigger & Pony these days. He especially likes talking to guests, that big smile breaking down barriers. “And then I listen very carefully to what they want. The answers are always there somewhere – and I think, ‘I’m gonna make it for you.'”

Now I’m Here, The Destination Has Changed

That talent to build rapport quickly and give guests exactly what they want – even when they didn’t really know what they wanted – is probably another reason Uno Jang has become the Altos Bartenders’ Bartender 2025. Now that it’s sinking in, he’s philosophical about it. “I thought this might be the destination my career leads to,” he muses, suddenly serious, “but now I’m here, the destination has changed. But I’m enjoying the journey,” he adds quickly.

Whiskey Sour Time

The next journey should lead to the bar. The interview’s over. And Uno Jang probably deserves a drink. Maybe a whiskey sour. A sweet, velvety, silky, smashable one – just like his beloved bar, Jigger & Pony.