Hong Kong club scene: Too Many Too Soon

 

Recently, there's been a steady stream of invites to cover happenings at private and not-so-private clubs. 

Hmm. 

1880 Hong Kong at Taikoo Place is the Social Club You Didn’t Know You Needed—Until Now

Four floors of Two Taikoo Place in Quarry Bay are set to become an elevated members’ club and innovative social experience.

In partnership with Swire Properties, social club and private members’ club 1880 Hong Kong will debut by the end of this year and span four floors at Two Taikoo Place.

A hybrid space dedicated to work, pleasure, and leisure, the idea is to build a “new category in workspace entertainment that reimagines the ‘future of work’ by seamlessly integrating work and play,” says founder Marc Nicholson. “It will serve as a place where people can come together for conversations, be exposed to new ideas, and build thriving communities.”

Read the entire feature here at Robb Report Hong Kong.

Club Reviews: Halo, Lei Dou and Mink

On Halo-'ed Ground

Words: P.Ramakrishnan

I’m not sure if there’s a point in plugging this hot number. A sister club to the similarly hip Volar, Halo’s got the glow of a minty new hot spot for those who’ve got serious cash to throw at a barkeep. Just last January did this spectacular looking “private club” open at a non-descript street in Central and without having hosted a celebrity and/or supermodel studded party, this hot spot is illuminating the dark pleasure of nocturnal, nefarious, notorious revelry at its finest in the 'Kong.

Just one trouble with this place. You can’t get in. Unless you’re a member. Or know one. Or know the owner or... you get the gist. If you’re not part of the elite “in within”, there’s just no point in standing outside while you see a stream of model-lites saunter in while they tell you – the average philistine with gravity-defying-hair-courtesy-of-a-Toni&Guy-ad-inspired-coiff-and-copious-gel – that the place is booked up.

Fortunately for me, I know a member, and a co-owner, and the night I was permitted entrance was the night I was part of singer/diva Rijan’s entourage. Down a risky flight of stairs, a goth-black underground Chateaux awaits. Whisked off to a private atrium (the theme being a subterranean house of leisure and pleasure; there’s a living room, library, garden room and so on enfolded within the cavernous space), as this is the place that requires a retina scan at the entrance before you’re allowed in (so you can’t even haggle at the door/flash a tit to get in), THEY know you’re coming and a place is reserved for you. FYI, reservations are required. And they don’t kid about that as on weekends, its jam-packed, vacuum-sealed-with the trendy “it” folks.

Seated at the library, we saw Peter Cheung, a marketing mastermind behind the biggest luxury brands in Asia, and his impossibly fashionable shadow walk in.  Upon a quick meet’n’greet, he sends over a complimentary bottle of champagne to our corner (Peter’s also the uncrowned king of social decorum). Again, if you need to double check the price tag of a bottle of Krug on the menu, this is not the place for you.

Filled with dark promises as the creatures of the night come out at their radiant best, its also the place to find your average Asian popstar rush in amongst hushed tones as they set up camp in their private enclaves. You need to be over 25 to enter (but they’re a bit lax on that rule if you're a model citizen) and as the crème de la crème order the entire contents of page three on the menu, sit in the warm glow of the haves, and people watch; its seeing sheaths of your average tabloid come alive.

Oh its good to know someone, who knows someone in a city like Hong Kong.

Halo
Lower Ground Floor, 10-12 Stanley Street, Central
Tel: 2810 1274
Operating Hours: Monday to Friday Doors open at 5pm
Saturday Doors open at 9pm
Sunday Closed
Kitchen last call at 00:30am every night (except Sunday)



Lei Dou

To escape the general irk of Lan Kwai Fong (far too hot, humid and peopled on weekends as every bar strewn street can be), Rebecca Walker, the gorgeous editor of the hip local publication taxi escorted me to Lei Dou last weekend. It’s right in the heart of LKF and for love nor money would you find it unless you were personally taken there on the arm of someone as in-the know as Ms Walker, who collects such invaluable data for her monthly publication.

“I just love this place,” she said while we walked up a slightly creepy and dodgy nameless building, after a poorly lit alleyway sheltered us from ‘Beerfest’ that raged on just a few steps away. “Come on, it's cool, it’s clean and the people are lovely!”

Er... right. 

Getting flashes of my last trip to the seamier side of Mongkok, where my sister wanted to buy a fake Bottega Veneta bag and a cigarette lipped man led us down a blind alley and up a cranky lift to an even dingier apartment, littered with every possible fake-designer dud. "Strangled by a plastic Gucci belt" the headlines would read I envisioned. Similarly, up a flight of stairs with a far more attractive specimen leading the way, we stood in front of a large black door, again, no sign or indication of what’s ahead and that familiar ominous silence followed the knock.

“And the drinks are reasonable,” she concluded while I pictured asphyxiation and bulb-lit mugging.

Wait… rewind that. Reasonable drinks in LKF? You had me at Hello!

Like a large living room with a generous bar, a fake fireplace, little corners with plush sofas and overstuffed chairs, this dimly lit cocoon is clearly a second home to its clientele. Lei Dou is not quiet a private club but it surely feigns to be, as the cloisters of finely feathered folks (there was a birthday bash we seemed to have gate crashed that night with a fedora theme) seemed to acknowledge each other with hearty hellos.

Signature martinis, decent collection of Australian wines, cool and comfortable with a none-too-shabby menu, knowing you’re in the heart of Central, yet away from the vast sweaty crowd below sure has its benefits. If you need me on a Friday after six, you’ll find me at my non-private-club, which is happy to let anyone in.

Lei Dou
D’Aguilar Street
Central
Tel: 2525 8276

Mink

“There’s a talk at Mink about how to pleasure your partner,” said a voice on the mobile. Already I’m groaning. “Its Kamasutra on the rocks babe! Drinks included!”

Well, all right. So my mates and I clop along Hollywood Road, dotted with carpet shops, art galleries, short-lived bars with dozens of people corresponding with antique shops with nary a patron (and yet somehow they last forever), Indian restaurants, and the like, to find the newly renovated Mink left wide open for our grand, albeit hesitant, entrance.

A gaggle of gals listening to a ‘coach’ on what to and not to do in the bedroom…kitchen, living room, or whatever rocks your boat. For $30 happy hour prices, after a few, it was all white noise and laughter, and really what more does one want on a Tuesday after work?

As Mink is between a slew of other bars, to keep its chin up, there’s always some event, promotion, deal, music-DJ-food-talk-cocktail strewn happening, but it really just boils down to atmosphere and service and fortunately for them, the place has got all the right ingredients.

Speaking of which, the house specialty, according to the press release we got, is the Peppered Mink Martini; a blend of pepper infused vodka, seared pineapple, caramel liqueur and lemon - and if that wasn't enough, it's garnished further with cracked pepper. 

As I oft heard that evening, “Nice... if you’re into that sort of thing.”

Mink
UGF, Au’s Building, 19 Hollywood Road, Central
Tel: 3171 1989.


UPDATE: Not sure if any of these mentioned bars survived as I write this sentence in 2014!

Drag & I: A look at Hong Kong's hottest club, the famous and infamous dragon I

Words: P Ramakrishnan


It bordered on the tragic. She was a well cropped mop of hair, standing next to, what could have very well been, the stunt double from the Incredible hulk, as she requested the bouncer in the private enclave of Dragon-I to let her in.

Hong Kong’ most notoriously hip Chinese dim-sum restaurant by day, that morphs into an über-club at night, Dragon-I has more star dust and celebrity sightings than your average ream of Hello! mag. The place where both the Brazilian and Manchester footballers partied the day before their match in Hong Kong two years ago (much to the chagrin of the managers when they failed to turn up the following day for practice), where Kanye West dined and jived after his one-night only concert, the guardians behind the velvet ropes of the club are to be feared and loved and, as the case was that night, to be genuflected over.

“Please let me in, I’m the friend of the DJ,” she squeals but it can be debated if her pitch reached the ears of the bouncer, four foot above her. The DJ had a name, but it wasn’t the pseudonym that appeared on the gigantic posters littered across the cavernous room. His “real” name was code to let his “real” friends in.

“You’re not on the list ma’am,” says the bouncer in monotone, clearly having seen this song and dance oft enough to know better.

Having graduated from the first round of velvet ropes where “the door bitch” let her in, she was emboldened enough to believe the VIP room was just a matter of conviction over credit… card.

All that fuss as Dragon-I celebrated its fourth anniversary with a host of the who’s who of Hong Kong (with a good dose of ‘who’s that?’ thrown into the mix). And yes, even I was dragged in on behest of the very able event coordinators, the wily minxes who promised free drinks (um, no!) and models teeming about (ah yes!). As the Centrium, apart from housing the club, two bars (the minty new “Solas” and “Waagu”, a pricey Aussie restaurant/bar with excellent wine) was also an aegis for two modeling agencies and a fashionable hair salon.

Oh and need I mention that Mischa Barton and entourage were there too? The 20-year-old OC starlet was expected under a shower of awaiting flashbulbs. Invited by Christian Dior to attend the charity gala premier of Hong Kong Ballet’s latest production, Barton’s mug had dotted every paper and magazine in town all week. As predictable as the social circuit is, bright sparks had long figured out that the young pout would swish into the club once her Dior duties were over. And lo and behold, with the entourage of the luxury brand, with a new outfit (and we believe new boyfriend) in tow, the princess walked in just after the clock struck midnight. Defrocked from her earlier, middling gown, the outfit she donned was far more paparazzi friendly. Still Dior of course.

Caked in like sardines in a vacuum sealed can, the VIP room already had 500 people (around 1,000 invitations were sent out in total but about triple as much lined up), 1000 others in the outer rim, it was a rare sight when the “haves” who didn’t in fact have invites, had to pay an entrance fee to get in. Wonders never cease.

So who else was there apart from the beauteous Barton? Well, the usual harem of luxury brand PRs, the pseudo-celebrities (models, one-pop wonders…) other club owners (from all the major HK clubs like Finds, Drop, Kee etc) who came to wish Gilbert Yeung, owner and famed playboy/partier, the best for the years of unprecedented success.

Hot clubs are a dime a dozen in the concrete jungle and, like organic milk, curdle within a short period of time. Somehow, every few weeks, with the right event, right personality, hype and hooplah, Dragon-I rises from the ashes of tedium and remains Hong Kong’s only place to be obscene and heard.

Dragon-i
The Centrium 60 Wyndham Street
Hong Kong,
Telephone: + 852 3110 1222
www.dragon-i.com.hk