The thrilling thing about having a black hat ride into town is that you never know what they’re going to do. Bedecked in tattoos, toting the right degree of bad-boy facial scruff and armed with a fantastic taste in a panorama of musical genres, Jay Gray checks all the boxes of palpably picture-perfect cool. Until, it becomes clear that he’s a visionary. Until you take in 1) His distinctly exquisite cocktails and 2) The perpetually full-house concepts he has opened. Then, you’ll realise that he’s not a dashing agent of upheaval but a dashing agent of growth, a catalytic force of propulsion greatly enlivening the sights, sounds and flavours of the Singaporean night-scape.
As a totality of his accomplishments and bona fides, Jay’s résumé bears some impressive highlights. Learning the ropes at a string of legendary bars including Brass Monkey Nottingham, the Worship Street Whistling Shop in London, and Baxter Inn, The Lobo, and Eau de Vie in Australia, Jay has literally and figurative crossed the world, sampling its multitudinous flavours and inflecting their revelations with his own uniquely explorative approach. When he lighted in Singapore as Monkey Shoulder’s Brand Ambassador to Southeast Asia, he channeled that wisdom into exquisite concoctions at some of the most exciting sanctums for savvy seekers of upper-echelon experiences especially at night.
His creative restlessness led to him emerging as the CEO and Director of the Sago House Group, under whose umbrella rests the Sago House (which ranked No.32 in The World’s 50 Best Bars 2023 and No.10 in Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2023, and where the drinks menu changes weekly) and Low Tide (a three-storey multi-concept edifice that is the brightest-burning beacon on Club Street) – and resigning from it in the last days of 2023.
To the shock that greeted his departure, Jay flashed a devilish smile and announced that he’d be opening his own concept.
At the 14-seater cocktail bar and restaurant Idle Hands, Jay is the lone mixologist, chef and (insert vocation here). Money and logic are the most common guiding lights in a career move, but for an uncommon spirit such as Jay’s, the importance of presenting the best possible version of what he is put on this Earth to do trumps the stifling safety of a corporate title. Where he once gave the nightlife ecosystem a glorious shot of hope during the darkest days of COVID-19, he now issues inspiring reminders of the merits of having the courage to be true to one’s muse.
There are many cases in point, my favourite being the Capri Sun Old Fashioned, a bewitching jolt of capsicum tequila, mezcal, pineapple and coconut. As he continues to lubricate the more exciting parts of ourselves, Jay continues to live up to the full extent of the designation of a ‘Creative Director’. In the linked arenas of mixology, brand development, menu curation, programming execution, and team building, when he says “Action”, action–breathtaking action–happens.
It goes without saying, then, that his hands are anything but idle.
