Through December, seven of Asia’s most celebrated cocktail destinations are leaving the city behind for Cempedak, a barefoot luxury retreat off the coast of Bintan. Kuala Lumpur’s Coley already made its appearance in early July.
Guest shifts are a familiar ritual in Asia’s cocktail scene. Bartenders travel between cities, take over each other’s counters for a night, play to crowds of industry peers in familiar urban settings. The Cempedak Sunset Takeover series is quite the opposite of that.
From July to December 2026, seven of Asia’s most respected bars are headed to Cempedak Private Island—a 17-hectare adults-only retreat nestled within Indonesia’s Riau Archipelago, just two and a half hours from Singapore—to take over Dodo Bar for a series of sunset sessions running from 5pm to 7pm. No dress code, no queue, no city skyline. Just world-class cocktails served barefoot against one of Southeast Asia’s most spectacular natural backdrops.
The full lineup: Coley, Kuala Lumpur (4 July); Bar Sathorn, Bangkok (18 August); Sora, Phnom Penh (19 September); F*nkytown, Bangkok (10 October); Native, Singapore (7 November); 28 HongKong Street, Singapore (12 November); and Hybrid, Nha Trang (5 December).
The Established Icons
Coley, Kuala Lumpur
Founded by CK Kho and named after legendary Savoy bartender Ada Coleman, Kho opened the series on 4 July in a fitting first act. Coley has long been central to shaping Malaysia’s modern cocktail movement, and its reputation has only deepened since its inception. Classical technique, local ingredients, and a hospitality style that is respected by industry and enthusiasts alike.
Native, Singapore
A homegrown concept spanning three storeys on Amoy Street, Native has become an iconic presence in Singapore’s cocktail landscape, guided by founder Vijay Mudaliar’s sustainability-led philosophy. Number 45 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars and number 84 on the World’s 50 Best Bars, the bar works directly with farmers, foragers and regional producers, building cocktails around hyper-local ingredients and a zero-waste ethos — fermented grasshoppers, laksa leaves, house-distilled regional spirits. A decade in, Native remains one of the most consequential bars in Asia.
28 HongKong Street, Singapore
When 28 HongKong Street opened in 2011, it brought with it a love for cocktails, spirits, and the bartending craft from a New York drinking culture that Singapore had yet to fully experience. Often credited as the bar that gave rise to the craft cocktail scene in Singapore and Asia, it took the number one spot on the inaugural Asia’s 50 Best Bars list in 2016 and has remained on the list ever since. Hidden behind an unmarked shophouse facade, it remains, fifteen years on, a benchmark for hospitality and craft that younger bars across the region still measure themselves against.
The Cultural Storytellers
Sora, Phnom Penh
Sora is the rooftop bar atop Rosewood Phnom Penh that made history as the first Cambodian bar on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 51–100 list. Under Jonas Vittur, Director of Bars, Sora has built something genuinely unusual: a programme that brings Japanese aesthetics and technique to bear on Khmer ingredients, producing cocktails that feel distinctly of their place while drawing on a broader craft tradition. Its Build & Sip menu is inspired by the playfulness of building blocks and rooted in Cambodian flavour, which will be what guests encounter at Cempedak in September.
READ ALSO: Phnom Penh Cocktail Festival 2026: Rosewood’s Sora Sets The Standard for Regional Bar Culture
Bar Sathorn, Bangkok
The overall venue dates back to 1889, when it was built as a residence for a wealthy Chinese businessman. It became the Hotel Royal in 1923, and the Hotel Thailand in 1926, before housing the Russian Embassy between 1948 and 1999. Today, Bar Sathorn—No. 48 on Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2025 —turns that history into cocktails, with head bartender Marco Dognini structuring the menu around four distinct eras of the building’s past. Thai ingredients, local heritage, and the kind of considered storytelling that makes a drink feel like it belongs to a specific time and place.
The Rulebreakers
F*nkytown, Bangkok
The Sarnies Group’s first cocktail venture, F*nkytown offers guests flavours rooted in locality and seasonality, developed with close-looped techniques, sustainable practices and diverse ingredients sourced across the region. Led by Group Beverage Manager Pae Ketumarn, whose career includes stints at two World’s 50 Best Bars—Sober Company in Shanghai and The SG Club in Tokyo—the bar operates on a “funkiness scale” from one to five, with drinks that read like liquid food: Caesar Salad, Green Curry, Pain au Matcha. Irreverent in framing, meticulous in execution.
Hybrid, Nha Trang
Everyone told Lam Duong he was “fucking crazy” trying to open his own molecular cocktail bar in Nha Trang, a beach city better known for cold beer and fresh seafood than considered cocktail culture. He opened Hybrid anyway in 2019, and by 2021 it had made the Asia’s 50 Best Bars extended list, one of only three Vietnamese bars to do so. The seasonal menu champions local and oft-forgotten ingredients like fish sauce, sea urchin, and anchovy; approached through molecular techniques that transform rather than mask. A fitting final act for a series that has mapped Asia’s cocktail community from its most established institutions to its most improbable outliers.
Getting to Cempedak Island
Cempedak is a 17-hectare adults-only private island retreat nestled within Indonesia’s Riau Archipelago, built around 20 open-air bamboo villas, pristine beaches, and ancient rainforest. It operates on a barefoot luxury ethos with considered service, exceptional food and drink, and the absence of the noise that distinguishes most resort experiences.
For Singapore-based travellers, the journey is straightforward. A ferry from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal to Bintan, followed by a transfer to Cempedak. From door to island, it runs to roughly two and a half hours. An achievable weekend escape, and one that pairs naturally with a night or two on the island before or after a takeover session.
For Malaysians, the journey requires more commitment: fly or drive to Singapore, cross to Bintan by ferry, and transfer onward to Cempedak. The additional leg adds time and planning, but it also adds distance from the everyday, making it for a considered getaway. The bars are making the journey, and that is a reason compelling enough for you to do the same.
www.cempedak.com / @cempedakisland
Images courtesy of Cempedak Private Island.
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