Uno Jang from Jigger & Pony wins peer-voted Bartenders’ Bartender Award

SINGAPORE – Mr Uno Jang, creative director and partner at Singapore’s Jigger & Pony Group, has been named the winner of the Altos Bartenders’ Bartender Award 2025.

The annual award, announced on Sept 10, is part of the yearly The World’s 50 Best Bars awards and is the only category that is peer-voted. Voters are bartenders from venues ranked on The World’s 50 Best Bars 2025.

According to 50 Best, the Bartenders’ Bartender Award is a way for the global bartending community to recognise fellow mixologists who have made a significant impact in the industry over the last 18 months.

At the Jigger & Pony Group, Mr Jang, 34, is directly responsible for the beverage programme at the flagship venue of Jigger & Pony at Amara Hotel. He also oversees the menus at Gibson and Live Twice, both at Bukit Pasoh, and Cosmo Pony in Jakarta. 

Under Mr Jang’s creative direction, Jigger & Pony has remained a consistent presence in The World’s 50 Best Bars and Asia’s 50 Best Bars rankings. In 2025, it was No. 3 in the Asia’s 50 Best Bars list for the second year running. It hit No. 5 in The World’s 50 Best Bars list in 2024. 

“I’m very honoured by this award, especially since it was voted on by my peers,” Mr Jang tells The Straits Times during an interview at Jigger & Pony on Sept 3. 

“I’m taking it as another opportunity to keep motivating myself, to keep challenging myself to be better,” adds the South Korean national, who moved to Singapore in 2015. 

His mentor at Jigger & Pony, the group’s co-founder and managing director Indra Kantono, says: “I am so proud of Uno – how he has grown through the years, from being a great bartender to a leader who inspires.

“Young bartenders are joining the industry, and many seek to work with and for him.”

Ms Emma Sleight, head of content for The World’s 50 Best Bars, says: “Uno is without a doubt one of the most approachable, thoughtful and generous people in the industry.

“He credits his mentors, uplifts his team and fosters a culture of collaboration that makes him beloved not just as a bartender, but also as a leader.”

The Altos Bartenders’ Bartender Award, which began in 2017, is one of two awards announced ahead of the awards ceremony, with the other being the Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award. The rest of the awards, including the top 50 rankings, will be announced at a ceremony in Hong Kong on Oct 8. 

Hospitality at the forefront 

Mr Jang, born and raised in Seoul, has spent most of his adult life in Singapore, having arrived here in 2015, soon after completing mandatory military service in South Korea.

Singapore was where he got his real start in the cocktail scene, first with a stint as a barback at the now-defunct Orgo Bar at the Esplanade, and then at Jigger & Pony, which he joined in 2017.

Over the next eight years, he steadily rose through the ranks. He was appointed Jigger & Pony’s bar manager at the end of 2022, and then group creative director in April 2024.

He says the secret to being a good bartender is understanding that the job does not end with shaking up a delicious cocktail – quite the opposite, in fact. 

“Hospitality is extremely important, if not the most important thing. Marketing and the narrative around the bar and the drinks are important as well. But good hospitality is what I’m emphasising to my team on a daily basis,” says Mr Jang.

In his experience, there are three key principles to good hospitality: consistency, speed and accuracy. 

“Drinks should be made quickly, accurately and up to a high basic standard,” he says. 

But he does not expect new joiners to have the full cocktail menus memorised and ready to go at the drop of a hat.

“We start them off with pouring and topping up water, providing snacks and checking in with guests,” he says. “These are all as important to the guest’s overall experience of the bar as the cocktails themselves.”

He is emphatic that his win is in large part a team effort – not just from his bosses and mentors at Jigger & Pony group, including Mr Kantono, but also his bar teams across the group’s venues. 

“Honestly, the bar team can be closer than my family, in some ways. You share so many highs together, and lows,” he observes. “Running a food and beverage venue is not easy, and it is really a collective effort.”

It has been a particularly challenging year for Singapore’s cocktail scene, with many venues closing down. The Jigger & Pony group’s venues continue to do well, despite the storm, though it did choose to close its rum bar, Sugarhall in Cecil Street, in late July.

It will reopen as a new concept in November. 

Closing Sugarhall is one way to keep the group on its toes, Mr Jang says. “You have to be proactive in continuing to learn, innovate, adapt and improve.”

“It’s a painful process right now, but I think in the long run, the bar scene in Singapore will come out better for it.” 

Uno Jang’s cocktail favourites

Favourite cocktail you’ve come up with?

It’s a three-way tie between the espresso martini that I crafted for Jigger & Pony, along with the Ugly Tomato and Champagne Ramos Gin Fizz. These are my signatures and they are all still on our menu.

Favourite drink on the Jigger & Pony menu?

It changes, but right now, I would say our Champagne Ramos Gin Fizz. The inspiration came from (Jigger & Pony co-founder) Indra Kantono, who told me that a gin ramos fizz should not be layered. I took that as a challenge and created one with four layers.

Favourite drink to order at another bar?

I love highballs, martinis and anything with coffee in it. 

How do you like your martini?

I used to enjoy them very dry – more gin, less vermouth – but these days, I go for a more “wet” martini with a 50-50 ratio of gin to vermouth. Temperature is also extremely important. It has to be super cold.

Favourite cocktail you’ve had in 2025, outside of your own venues?

It was in New Orleans, where my mentor Philip Bischoff – of BKK Social Club in Bangkok – was doing a guest shift at the Four Seasons and made a tequila martini with a smoky olive brine and mezcal. Just, wow.

Favourite bars you’ve visited in 2025?

Dry Wave Cocktail Studio in Bangkok and Mixology Heritage in Tokyo.