The Elephant Room is a culture-forward cocktail bar in Singapore, founded by Yugnes Susela on 24 September 2019 and built around the streets and spirit of Little India rather than looking overseas for inspiration. Rather than treating Little India as a theme, the bar positions itself as translating that culture through hospitality — using cocktails as a medium to introduce Indian culture respectfully, without dilution.
The concept rests on three pillars. Ingredient Sourcing means spices, herbs and produce are sourced directly from Little India's Tekka Market and handpicked by the team, treated as an operational commitment rather than symbolism. Service Standard treats hospitality as the way culture becomes accessible to guests experiencing it in this format, often for the first time, with a warm, knowledgeable and intuitive approach. The Cocktail Program has every drink begin with a story from Little India, transforming cultural narratives into drinking experiences through ingredients, flavour, texture, temperature and technique — balance first, innovation second.
The bar's name and symbol draw on the elephant as a representation of wisdom, memory, strength, community and heritage, reflecting a belief that hospitality can carry and preserve stories across generations in the same way. The Elephant Room has been recognised in the press, including a feature from Vogue Singapore describing it as 'a masterclass in storytelling, bringing the unvarnished flavors of Little India to the global stage,' alongside additional press recognition.
The bar is found at 33 Tanjong Pagar Road #01-02, Singapore (the site also references a Little India / Teck Lim Road location tag, so it's worth confirming the current address directly before visiting).
In a city known for cocktail bars chasing overseas inspiration, The Elephant Room chose a different starting point: the streets of Little India, right in Singapore's own backyard. Founded by Yugnes Susela on 24 September 2019, the bar was built on a simple but deliberate premise — that cocktails can be a powerful way to tell stories, and that Little India's culture deserved to be the source material rather than a decorative theme.
The founder is explicit about the distinction: "Culture is not aesthetic. Culture is the origin. It comes from a specific place, shaped by specific people." The Elephant Room describes itself as existing to close the gap between tradition and the modern glass, using hospitality as the medium to introduce Indian culture respectfully, without dilution. It's framed less as storytelling for effect and more as, in the founder's words, "positioning by intent."
The bar's concept is built on three non-negotiable pillars. The first is Ingredient Sourcing — spices, herbs and produce are sourced directly from Tekka Market in Little India and handpicked by the team, an operational commitment the bar treats as a baseline expectation rather than a differentiator. The second is Service Standard: because many guests are experiencing Indian culture in this format for the first time, service becomes the mechanism through which that culture is delivered, aiming for a warm, knowledgeable and intuitive style that keeps things approachably contemporary and respectful. The third is the Cocktail Program itself, where every drink begins with a story from Little India, transformed through ingredients, flavour, texture, temperature and technique — with balance prioritised first and innovation second.
The bar's name and visual identity draw on the elephant as a symbol of wisdom, memory, strength, community and heritage. Just as elephants are said to carry stories across generations, The Elephant Room frames its own hospitality as a vessel for preserving and sharing culture in the same way.
The concept has drawn press attention, including a feature from Vogue Singapore, which called The Elephant Room "a masterclass in storytelling, bringing the unvarnished flavors of Little India to the global stage." The bar has also picked up additional press recognition, reflected in the publication logos featured on its site.
The bar is open Sunday to Thursday from 6pm to midnight, and Friday and Saturday from 6pm to 2am, with a daily happy hour running from 6pm to 7:30pm. It's closed on Mondays. Walk-ins are welcome, though reservations are recommended for peak hours, bookable through OpenTable.
The Elephant Room's 'Find Us' details point to 33 Tanjong Pagar Road #01-02, Singapore 088456, reachable by phone or email. The site also carries a 'Singapore · Little India, 20 Teck Lim Road' location tag on its pages, which doesn't match the Tanjong Pagar address listed in the footer — worth double-checking directly with the bar before heading out, particularly given references on the site to a newer location.
At its core, The Elephant Room is trying to do something more ambitious than serve good drinks: it wants to take what it calls an under-documented culture and share its richness more widely, using the bridge between heritage and modern cocktail craftsmanship to bring the stories of Little India to guests' palates in unexpected ways.