Singaporean trendsetter Fura is on a mission to redefine eco-aware drinking, ushering in a new era of conscious cocktail consumption that has earned it the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award as part of Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024. Founders Sasha Wijidessa and Christina Rasmussen share insights into their groundbreaking approach
It’s always been about more than recycling used bar bottles for Sasha Wijidessa and Christina Rasmussen. The pair’s holistic approach to sustainability is at the beating heart of Fura, from the sourcing and use of ingredients to the décor and drinks list. Here’s a smorgasbord of eco-driven insights from the dynamic duo.
1. The bar was inspired by a book about mushrooms
The Fura founders collected their trophy on stage in Hong Kong
Fura is fluid in its philosophy. “There is no hard and fast rule,” Wijidessa says. “Fura is just who we are and we’re simply doing what we think is right, keeping what sort of world we would like to leave to the next generation in mind at all times.”
The focus on the impact humankind has on its surroundings is entrenched in the bar’s ethos, which was inspired by a book entitled The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins by Chinese American anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing.
The book analyses the commodity chains of the matsutake mushroom – the most valuable mushroom in the world, which grows in human-disturbed forests across the northern hemisphere. While the matsutake helps forests thrive in unlikely environments, it also serves as a testament to the delicate and often unbalanced relationship between people and nature, namely examining what manages to survive in the ruins that humankind creates. It was this destructive symbiosis that solidified Wijidessa and Rasmussen’s mission of exemplifying ecological balance at Fura.
2. Sustainability is about more than reducing plastic
Many elements of Fura's interior are created from upcycled materials
Fura is nestled away from the bustle of Singapore, ensconced in a small shophouse in Chinatown in a space wholly dedicated to the doctrine of reduce, reuse, recycle, repeat. Partnering with local interior design firm Gin&G, Wijidessa and Rasmussen’s upcycling goes beyond recycling plastics or glass bottles. Their coasters, for example, are made from oyster shells, each a painstaking act of love to craft. Wijidessa recalls how she would collect the oyster shells and wash them patiently outside her apartment with bleach, salt and vinegar before using up to eight at a time to make a single coaster.
Fura’s bar stools are made from a sustainable material of compressed plywood coloured with a natural wood stain. Non-toxic, eco-friendly lime wash coats the walls instead of traditional paint and even the lighting fixtures are made from recycled lights.
3. Fura’s wine list features ugly fruit and veg
Fura makes the most of its small urban garden to grow ingredients
The bar’s menu, Journal of Future Foods, only uses ingredients that are available in abundance. The bar team partnered with a local vendor to turn less-than-perfect bar fruit and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste into a signature range of ‘ugly delicious’ wines. The surplus goods are fermented in house and made into fruit wines and non-alcoholic kombucha.
4. There’s method behind the madness of the cocktail ingredients
The Jellyfish Martini aids the environment by using the invasive invertebrate
Local ingredients with a low carbon footprint are naturally the name of the game for Fura but, even so, the cocktail menu sports some rather unusual components, from mealworms and black garlic caviar to jellyfish. The rationale behind the ingredient roster is that the team sources ingredients that are abundant, or even invasive, in order to help balance ecosystems.
Sample its signature Make Local Tomatoes Great Again (tomatoes, basil, parsley, green apples) or opt for the Jellyfish Martini (gin, jellyfish, fish leaf, spirulina, dry vermouth, kombu oil) to contribute to supporting marine ecosystems.
As well as cocktails, Fura serves up a plant-based food menu with Rasmussen’s foraging experience to the fore. “People are used to convenience and readily available options but, as humans are adaptable, we can look at changing our personal diets to have a positive impact on the planet,” she explains.
Experience Fura’s take on vegan plates with dishes such as forged parfait (cultured Japanese quail, hazelnut biscuit, malt apple, onion crisp) and a new age affogato that combines kelp ice cream with malt ‘espresso’ soil and a carob tuille.
5. The team met in Copenhagen
The business and life partners Sasha Wijidessa and Christina Rasmussen met in Copenhagen
Singaporean Wijidessa, who is of Chinese and Sri Lankan heritage, was the general manager of Singapore bar Operation Dagger before being spotted in 2019 by Lars Williams of Empirical Spirits fame, who recruited her to his team in Copenhagen.
Wijidessa met Rasmussen in the Danish capital when the latter was the head forager at legendary restaurant Noma (voted The World’s Best Restaurant in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2021). While Rasmussen originally trained as a pastry chef, her true passion lay in discovering new ways to utilise nature’s larder. Her goal is to demonstrate that everyone can reduce their impact on the environment with just a little more care and consideration.
“I cannot imagine opening a company where sustainability was not the driving point,” Rasmussen confirms. “It should be the ethos and the pillar of the business,” adds Wijidessa, ever aligned in their shared vision.
6. Fura isn’t just a bar, it’s (almost) a lifestyle
Look out for a new concept on the third floor of the shophouse where Fura can be found, as the eco-focused duo are planning to pivot towards creating a lifestyle concept that will extend beyond their current food and beverage offering.
While a new venture is on the cards, after two years without a holiday and with the events of Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024 a recent memory, the pair is taking time off to recharge before returning to reignite Fura’s closed loop ecosystem of review, reassess, repeat.
Miss this year's ceremony? Watch the highlights below:
The list of Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2024, sponsored by Perrier, was revealed at a live awards ceremony at Rosewood Hong Kong on 16 July. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube to stay up to date with all the news and announcements.
