When I was in college 15 years ago, I used to go to Fête de la Musique with my friends. I knew several members of a jazz-fusion band and would always find my way to whatever Poblacion bar hosted the jazz stage that year. I remember being a student surviving on allowance, so I wouldn’t order food — just one or two San Miguel Super Drys to last the night. San Mig Lights might’ve been cheaper, but I still had standards. Times were simpler. The sin tax didn’t exist yet, so a couple of drinks weren’t devastating to my finances.

Life happens, as it tends to, and eventually, I got too busy — or maybe just too indifferent — to keep going to Fêtes. So it was with a sense of nostalgia and more than a little wistfulness that I found myself at the Long Bar at Raffles Makati on 20 June, watching a jazz trio play more than a decade since I’d last done that. I was resolved this year to get back into live music, and I hoped this event would be the kind of head start I needed before diving into Fête proper the following week.

The event was The French Stage, organized by Alliance Française, Embassy of France in Manila, and other partners, with French jazz/broken beat/house trio Emile Londonien headlining. The band was excellent, delighting us with their blend of traditional and electronic jazz. After the set, the group thanked their hosts for bringing them to Manila to kick off the 31st edition of Fête de la Musique, but honestly, I was the grateful one — especially after being treated to such a stellar, varied drumming repertoire.

The crowd at Long Bar was split between patrons enjoying cocktails and conversations with a backdrop of music, and jazz fans gathered near the stage, heads bobbing to the beat. The venue offered several excellent vantage points to soak in the set, whether you were at the end of the bar, seated at lower tables close to the stage, or standing just behind it. 

I enjoyed the music so much that I didn’t even think to order food or drink until the set ended. I’m no longer the broke student nursing a Super Dry; these days my horizons have expanded, and I’m glad they have, because Long Bar offers an impressive range of cocktails and food that fit the millennial professional’s taste for both ambience and flavor.

Styled after the original Long Bar at Raffles Singapore — where the Singapore Sling was created — the Makati outpost brings its own playful nods to the classic cocktail. There’s the Makati Luxury Sling, their local twist on the iconic drink, which I tried alongside the original. Both were enjoyable, especially for readers who, like me, have a soft spot for sweeter, fruitier cocktails. The pineapple and lime added just enough brightness to balance out the gin’s strength. Beyond the sling variations — there are five more — the bar menu mixologically explores regional flavors too: the strawberry-tinged Little Baguio and the pickled-spicy-green-mango-flavored Chavavano Sour stood out.

I also appreciated the bar’s menu design — styled to look like handwritten notes, offering little asides on wine regions or the history of Raffles. It even features a scrawled out Singapore Sling recipe. It felt personal, like you were a researcher chronicling the stories behind the sips.

For food, I went for their fancy pork sisig with poached egg, mountain red rice and pork cracklings, plus an order of chicharon dusted with a spice rub and served with pinakurat coconut vinegar. The menu also highlights global bar chow: Pork buns, falafel and other bites that suit Long Bar’s cosmopolitan air. The selection intrigued me enough that I’d like to go back try more items off the menu — preferably not alone, next time!

Even when Fête de la Musique isn’t in town, Long Bar features live music nightly. It’s the kind of spot where you can bring friends or a date when you’d rather skip the organized chaos of Poblacion’s alleyways and be comfortably transported to a classic Southeast Asian watering hole — snazzy, intimate and aware of its place in history and culture.