Cat Bite Club’s Gabriel Lowe gives us the lowdown on tequila’s increasing popularity and how specialising might be the path to success for a bar.
My interactions with Gabriel Lowe of Cat Bite Club are few and far between. But every time we meet, I recall him to be a genuinely warm person with a fantastic breadth of knowledge to share – tequila being one of them! The drinks program at Cat Bite Club differs from other cocktail bars in Singapore. Unlike your standard bars with multiple house pours ranging from whisky to gin, Cat Bite Club offers only agave and rice spirits. But does a limited offering mean limiting your audience? Gabriel tells me no. In fact, it might be the reason why Cat Bite Club is so successful.
Spilling tea-quila with Gabriel Lowe of Cat Bite Club
Cat Bite Club was one of the first few bars to spotlight rice spirits during its rise in 2023. What was the motivation behind creating a tequila-focused bar?
It is about shining a light on categories that deserve a lot more attention.
Agave spirits have an incredible amount of depth. Once you start learning about different species, production methods and regions, you realise they’re much more complex than other spirit categories. At the same time, we were seeing rice spirits across Asia beginning to evolve in really exciting ways.
When did you first notice tequila being taken more seriously?
Probably around fifteen years ago. I remember bartenders beginning to talk about tequila the way they’d talk about single malt whisky or Burgundy, discussing terroir, fermentation, production methods and individual producers.
More recently, guests have caught up as well. Today, people ask where an agave was grown, whether a tequila contains additives or which distillery produced it. Those conversations were incredibly rare when I first started bartending.
In your eyes, what does it say about a bar when it goes niche with its offerings?
A niche concept says, “This is what we love, and we are confident you’ll love it too”. It gives people a reason to visit because they’re going to experience something they can’t get everywhere else.
We never want guests to feel like they’re being forced to learn anything. We try to create fun ways to learn that may excite the guest. We use many spirits in our cocktails that bars usually don’t. Instead of writing excessive paragraphs on their origins, we offer a small pour of the spirit on the side of the cocktail at a low price. This way, the guest can taste the item that may be unfamiliar, and only if they are curious about it can they learn more about it from the bartender.
What made you want to centre the bar around tequila rather than go broader?
There are already a lot of fantastic cocktail bars that do everything well.
We wanted to create a destination rather than another generalist cocktail bar. Myself and the other co-founder are both from California. Agave spirits are something that we grew up with as bartenders. It was abundantly available in bars when we were first learning to appreciate spirits. We trust that drinkers everywhere in the world would love it after experiencing it in the right way.
People don’t always remember every cocktail they drank, but they remember how a place made them feel and what made it different. A strong identity creates those memories.
What is the value in going niche versus a broad offering? Especially in an already niche interest like cocktails and alcohol.
Being niche gives you a point of view.
People don’t always remember every cocktail they drank, but they remember how a place made them feel and what made it different. A strong identity creates those memories.
It also allows your team to become genuine experts. Instead of knowing a little about everything, they can confidently guide guests through a category in a way that’s engaging rather than overwhelming.
I actually think being specialised makes hospitality better because it gives us more opportunities to tell stories.
When we think of tequila, we think of salt and lime to go with shots. What’s changed since then?
Thankfully, quite a lot.
The salt-and-lime ritual came from an era when a lot of tequila wasn’t particularly enjoyable to drink on its own. Today’s best producers are making spirits with incredible complexity, and people are starting to appreciate tequila the way they would any premium spirit.
Cocktail culture has helped too. Bartenders have shown that tequila isn’t limited to margaritas or shots. It works beautifully in spirit-forward cocktails, highballs, stirred drinks – even martinis. Once people experience that versatility, it completely changes their perception of the category.
Good storytelling might get someone to order a drink once, but quality is what makes them order it again.
When a drink or spirit starts to pick up in popularity, what would you say is usually the driving force?
I think it’s a combination of passionate producers, curious bartenders and adventurous guests.
Bartenders are often the bridge. We introduce people to something new in a way that feels approachable. If the product is genuinely good, guests start asking for it elsewhere, importers invest more in bringing it in, and suddenly a category begins to grow.
Social media definitely speeds things up, but it doesn’t create lasting success. At the end of the day, people have to enjoy what’s in the glass. Good storytelling might get someone to order a drink once, but quality is what makes them order it again.
Tequila’s grown up, and maybe so have we
In an industry as challenging as F&B, especially the bar scene, whittling your offerings down to a single category of spirit sounds counterintuitive. But there’s something magical in discovering the depths of a subject that might spark the curiosity of even the most uninterested drinkers. Gone are the days when tequila was meant to give you a buzz before a night out. It’s grown up into something celebrated. So beloved that people are turning to agave bars like Cat Bite Club to learn from people like Gabriel, or to enjoy a sip in a space that curates only the best.
And if you’re still unconvinced, pay Cat Bite Club a visit to see what the fuss is all about! You might just walk away with a new favourite bar (and spirit of choice).
