FROM INNOVATOR TO INSTITUTION - TEN YEARS OF 28 HONGKONG STREET
SINGAPORE, 1 November 2021 – 28 HongKong Street, Proof & Company’s very own award-winning cocktail bar, turned 10 years old on October 31 2021. To celebrate, we’re taking a look at where we came from and what’s been achieved — and launching a short film titled “You Had To Be Here“.
28 HongKong Street
When 28 HongKong Street co-founders Spencer Forhart, Paul Gabie and Snehal Patel arrived in Singapore they brought with them a love for cocktails, spirits, and the bartending craft. They were enthusiasts of what would soon be called the second golden age of fine drinking. In 2011, this golden age had spread around the world, but a craft approach to cocktails in Singapore was still largely in its infancy. Save for a few bright spots, the bar scene in the city was a far cry from what was happening in London, Melbourne, and San Francisco. The trio missed the bar experiences they had at New York cocktail bars like Milk & Honey, Employees Only and Angel’s Share, so they decided to bring to Singapore a little of what they loved from back home. 28 HongKong Street opened on Halloween 2011.
It was an instant success. It took Michael Callahan’s, founding General Manager, experience and our founders’ vision to identify raw local talent and raise their skills to a world-class level.
Michael Callahan, Founding General Manager of 28 HongKong Street
“The novel idea was to create something unique in Singapore and to bring that to the world, rather than bringing something from the world to Singapore, as was the fashion at the time. To that end, we took international standards, but employed locals and empowered them to make this outlet their story.”
28 HongKong Street pioneered an unwavering commitment to ingredients, preparation, and technique. The bar put in place one of the country’s first high-quality ‘nice ice’ programs, strict use of fresh ingredients, and a culinary approach to making syrups, infusions and more. Many of these principles are the norm these days but weren’t at the time. 28 HongKong Street created the demand for cocktail block ice where there was none before; today it is widely available in Singapore.
Paper Tiger; Alipus Mezcal, Ancho Reyes, dry sherry, Gran Classico Bitter
Another important 28 HongKong Street innovation was to introduce out-of-market craft spirits to Singapore. The enthusiasm for alternative small batch, artisanal and craft brands was pivotal in marking 28 HongKong Street as a unique experience, enhancing the cocktail offering and cementing the bar’s reputation for creating cocktails with nuance. The demand for these brands also provided the impetus to launch Proof & Company, Asia Pacific’s leading independent spirits company, and subsequent endeavors such as Proof Creative, True Believers, and ecoSPIRITS.
A wall of spirits from around the world
It wasn’t long before the global bar community took notice. In 2012, 28 HongKong Street’s first full year in operation, the bar made its debut at number 10 on The World’s 50 Best Bars list — quite an accomplishment for a newcomer, in a city about as far away from the traditional cocktail world as one could get. Not only would 28 HongKong Street stay on that list for seven straight years, but it would soon find a lot of company from other bars across Asia. Other acknowledgements followed: coveted awards at Tales of the Cocktail’s Spirited Awards in 2014 and 2015, for Best International Bar and Best International Bar Team respectively. For a little Singapore cocktail bar to win these awards was a big deal.
A trophy case displays awards and gifts received through the years.
Tales of the Cocktail, Spirited Awards on Display
But it isn’t the 28 HongKong Street way to rest on one’s laurels. The bar adopted an identity and a set of values, created by a remarkable roll call of people across the years who built and evolved 28 HongKong Street. Just look to the many alumni who have gone on to achieve greatness in the industry beyond the bar’s unmarked door. There must be some magic within the walls.
A proud moment for 28HKS bar captain Lukas Kaufmann
As famed bartender, Steve Schneider recently said: “You know, anyone can be hot for a year or two. But these folks at 28 have done it year in and year out for the last 10 years.”
Serve the community long enough, and a bar can cross the threshold from innovator to institution. Today it is clear that 28 HongKong Street has crossed that threshold. Born to celebrate the institutions its founders admired, and through its innovations, its ability to inspire others and its longevity, 28 HongKong Street is an institution of fine drinking in Singapore. We’re celebrating a wonderful decade of 28 HongKong Street with this short film here. It is a visual poem and a love letter to 28 HongKong Street that not only commemorates the last 10 years but builds anticipation for what comes next.
The era of Covid remains a challenge for bars around the world, but 28 HongKong Street is looking forward with excitement and ambition. With a team of inspired talent, a desire to provide memorable drinking experiences and a pipeline of creative initiatives ahead, the future looks good, and it looks delicious.
About 28 HongKong Street
Hidden behind an unassuming 1960’s shophouse façade, 28HKS is a word-of-mouth venue for people who might appreciate the kind of venue that we enjoy ourselves: relaxing at the beginning, growing a tad louder as the night goes on. The drinks focus’ is on artisanal spirits and American-style craft cocktails. The food is gussied up American comfort food made from scratch for sharing.
You can visit the venue from 5:00pm to 10:30pm, Monday to Saturday. You can follow the journey on Instagram.
FOUR SEASONS HONG KONG CELEBRATES THE OPENING OF ARGO, A PROOF CREATIVE COLLABORATION
HONG KONG, September 2021 – ARGO, the highly anticipated modern cocktail bar at Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong has opened its doors to a warm reception from both guests and media. The former site of Blue Bar has undergone a comprehensive transformation into a world-class destination. The first few weeks of operations have seen both long lines for entry and Time Out Magazine naming ARGO as the world’s coolest bar on its global list of new openings in 2021.
A visually arresting back bar showcases ARGO’s collection of innovative spirits.
In a city that prides itself on elevated food and beverage, ARGO appears to set to become one of the year’s most captivating openings. The warm reception to ARGO’s opening is welcome news as the global hospitality community manages through another year of disruption and difficulty.
ARGO has been one of the Proof Creative’s longest-running projects, with work starting in early 2019 and continuing through several delays brought on by the global pandemic. The assignment was to help Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong create a destination bar befitting a property already renowned for its eight Michelin stars (Lung King Heen, 3 Stars, Caprice, 3 Stars, Sushi Saito, 2 Stars). Working closely with Lorenzo Antinori, Four Seasons Asia Pacific Beverage Ambassador and the driving force behind ARGO, a central concept of innovation and exploration of ingredients and spirits was developed to give ARGO a unique point of view as it takes its place amongst a strong cohort of global hotel bars.
The Conservatory, a semi-private room with a view of Victoria Harbour at ARGO.
Lorenzo Antinori, Beverage Ambassador Four Seasons Asia Pacific
“ARGO is a cocktail bar that explores the modern world, and how it is shaping the way we drink and think about spirits. This is a space where we celebrate the innovators of our industry and people who challenge the status quo,” notes Antinori, “ARGO has been shaped by the global impacts of the last few years, and reflects the need and desire for innovation in the face of challenge.”
Antinori is no stranger to world-class cocktails bars, having previously been the Head Bartender at Dandelyan in London when it was ranked the World’s Best Bar by World’s 50 Best Bars and Charles H. at Four Seasons Seoul to its position of Best Bar in Korea. While developing ARGO, Antinori focused his attention on the bar program at Caprice and bringing his brand of service and attention to detail to elevating the drinks offering with vintage spirits, cocktails inspired by French seasonality and famously generous servings of exquisite cheeses. This work paid off when Caprice entered Asia’s 50 Best Bars list in 2019 and rising rapidly to number 10 in 2020, making Caprice one of the few venues to feature on both the Bars and Restaurants list of Asia’s best venues.
Bar Manager Summer Lo
Head Bartender Yvonne Chan
Image credit: Four Seasons Hong Kong
In leading ARGO, Antinori is supported by a strong team, including Hong Kong industry star Summer Lo, formerly of Blue Bar and winner of Speed Rack Asia, and Yvonne Chan, formerly of The Old Man Hong Kong, which ranked as Asia’s Best Bar in 2019. The team at ARGO includes many team members who have been with the hotel since before renovation began, and have been honing their talents for service and hosting at Caprice, experiencing Michelin-standard standards first hand while waiting for the venue to be completed.
ARGO’s debut cocktail menu, titled ‘Here Today, Gone Tomorrow’, showcases staple daily ingredients that were once classed as luxuries and may once again become so with the onset of climate change and the disruption it threatens to bring to agriculture and food production. Each cocktail is inspired by one such ingredient and is presented as both an “Origin” and “Evolution” option. Coffee, a daily staple for many worldwide, is represented in the “Origin” section as the Red Rock Sazerac, a mix of Ferrand 1840 Original Formula Cognac, beetroot, Ethiopian green coffee and bentonite clay, which evokes the red, earthy soils where the first coffee beans were found and cultivated.
The Red Rock Sazerac Cocktail, with Ferrand 1840 Original Formula Cognac.
No bar built on a foundation of innovation and exploration would be complete without creative collaborations with spirits and ingredient producers that push boundaries. ARGO’s collaboration with South Australia distillery Never Never Distilling Co. has produced an award-winning modern martini gin that represents this spirit of innovation. A distillate of Chinese gins is mixed with Never Never’s trademark robust juniper-forward spirit before being rested in an ex-Chardonnay wine barrel that has been seasoned with Mancino Secco vermouth. The result is a dry, fragrant and herbal gin, with a touch of champagne hue from the barrel. that has already garnered recognition with a Gold Medal and scoring of 95 points from the International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC) This collaboration gin is best enjoyed in the signature ARGO Martini, which is presented in a bespoke crystal glass developed for ARGO by John Jenkins in the United Kingdom.
Never Never Distilling Co x John Jenkins x ARGO martini collaboration, ‘ARGO Martini’.
ARGO’s spirits collection, titled “The World’s Most Innovative Spirits”, is another highlight of a visit to the bar. Developed over the course of two years by Antinori and Tom Egerton, Proof Creative’s Senior Bar Consultant, the collection is inspired by the changing landscape of spirits production and challenges the traditional classifications of liquors. Categories include “Modernist Spirits”, which showcases spirits created with cutting-edge techniques, and “Philanthropic & Socially Conscious Spirits”, which celebrates producers who have a strong commitment to protecting their land, culture, and peoples. The collection was compiled as part of an 18-month selection process undertaken by Antinori and Egerton during which each bottle had to go through a strict criteria to review whether or not it was true to the ethos of innovation, and includes nearly 30 bottles hand-sourced by Proof & Company from around the world which cannot be found elsewhere in Hong Kong.
“We were interested in how the landscape of spirits making has been evolving, reflecting what’s happening in the fast-paced modern world,” Says Antinori “We felt the need of breaking the wall of the classic traditions and look with curiosity what’s on the other side, to remain ahead of the curve and see emerging patterns in a changing environment.”
While serious about craft and experience, Antinori and the ARGO team take care to ensure there is a light-hearted side to ARGO. Fun and unexpected details are woven into the experience and are constantly changing, leaving guests surprised and delighted. From gummy-bear laced champagne to magic olives and chocolate kisses, these small details help bring ARGO to life.
Barks, Leaf and Love – Honey Gin, Longan, Ivy Leaf, Preserved Strawberries & Split Milk
Single Origin Negroni - St. George Terroir Gin, Cascara vermouth, Hulu Gali Cocoa, Smoked Jalapeno
Image credit: Four Seasons Hotel Hong Kong
Inspired by a neo-classical conservatory, ARGO’s interior design is visually striking. Led by designers ABConcepts, the ARGO interiors include mellow green tones, topiary boxes, exposed metal and natural light from Victoria Harbour, which helps the venue to transition seamlessly from day to night. The unique back bar tower features 58 individual rotating chambers housing the collection of innovative spirits. Seating 90 guests in comfortable luxury lounge fashion, the floor-to-ceiling windows, which frame the transition between sunny days to the twinkling Kowloon skyline at night, provide a captivating backdrop to explore the cocktails, spirits, and service.
Striking interiors inspired by a neo-classical conservatory.
Brand and collateral for ARGO, including the food and drink menus, was developed by Adelaide-based design agency MASH, who are known for visually rich venues such as Bali’s Motel Mexicola and Hong Kong’s Happy Paradise. Beyond creating a visual identity for the bar, MASH helped create a hard-bound Field Guide to the World’s Most Innovative Spirits which is presented as a companion piece to the cocktail menu. The Field Guide includes extensive information and photography that tell the stories of each spirit in the collection.
Food offerings include luxe takes on comfort food and are designed to pair with the cocktail experience and provide a perfect companion to the drinking experience, with similar inspiration regarding innovation to be found in the menu design. This can be seen in the plant-based protein Impossible Meats Katsu Sando flight and the iconic Hong Kong egg waffles are elevated with a trio of milk ice cream, Sichuan chocolate and salted miso caramel dipping sauces.
The Hong Kong egg waffles at ARGO.
ARGO is the latest debut in a long-line of collaborations between Proof Creative and Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, a shared history that includes the development of Manhattan Bar in Singapore, Charles H. in Seoul and Bar Trigona in Kuala Lumpur. Proof Creative’s work on ARGO was led by Senior Bar Consultant Tom Egerton. This work included creative collaborations with respected glassware purveyor John Jenkins, award-winning gin brand Never Never Distilling Co., and others.
Proof Creative’s involvement begun in early 2019 and implemented its renowned ’20 Pillar’ Creative Process. This meant taking a holistic approach to its consulting and work on the early concept development phase, through to functional layout advisory, OS&E curation, glassware design, innovative spirits curation, creative writing and much more.
Tom Egerton, Senior Bar Consultant
“ARGO was a long journey from conception to opening night, and to see how the venue has come to life has been incredible. A particularly proud moment for me was on the first opening night sitting and enjoying the first sip of the ARGO martini, using a gin we helped create and a glass we helped to design – and watching the full room full of happy and excited faces, the culmination of an incredible amount of passion, hard work and dedication.”
The journey at ARGO has only just begun with the doors finally opening, with plans for integrating augmented reality garnishes, an innovative spirit drinking society, engaging and thoughtful programming and more planned to introduce over coming months, and as options for travel slowly begin to open up Hong Kong to guests from around the world to visit ARGO in person.
With ARGO now open, you can visit the venue at the Four Seasons Hong Kong from 5:00pm to 12:00am, Monday to Saturday. At current time they are not accepting reservations, with only walk-ins available. You can follow the journey on Instagram.