INTHEBLACK August 2024 - Flipbook - Page 32
MEMBER PROFILE
such as The New York Times, Monocle in
London and Malaysia’s The Yum List, the bar
is proving especially trendy among travellers
who appreciate an old-school approach of
using fresh fruit ingredients for cocktails,
rather than flavoured syrups.
“That’s been very popular,” Lim says.
“Nowadays, not many cocktail bars maintain
the [traditional] way of preparing cocktails
due to cost and time factors, but we still
prefer it this way.”
On an extensive drinks list, popular
items include the Jungle Bird of Paradise
featuring dark rum, pineapple and Campari;
a Cuban-inspired daiquiri with dark rum,
pineapple and orange juice; the Aki, named
after a fictional female character in the
James Bond film You Only Live Twice; and
a George Town Mule, which is made with
ginger grown on nearby hills.
The bar’s drinks, originally created by
a bartender from Penang, draw liberally
from local produce and spices.
32 INTHEBLACK August 2024
CHALLENGES TO OVERCOME
Running the cocktail bar has not always
been smooth sailing for Lim. After opening
its doors in late 2019, the first pandemic
lockdown came just months later, and
the bar could not reopen until late 2021.
“Even then, that was only for the
Malaysia border-crossing travellers,
and our international border in Malaysia
did not reopen until about April 2022,”
Lim explains.
Such a long closure undoubtedly
threatened the survival of the nascent
business. However, Lim says a commitment
to quirkiness and quality and the popularity
of George Town, a city known for its British
colonial buildings and Chinese shophouses,
have helped Archipelago capture travellers
and maintain a local clientele that has
anchored its post-pandemic rebound.
“It’s been a great journey,” Lim says.
The pandemic aside, Lim says one
of the biggest tests for the business has
