22 DEPARTURES TRAVEL
22 DEPARTURES TRAVEL RAISING THE BAR Nightlife Notes A deliciously eclectic trio of Hong Kong hot spots promises high concepts, chic interiors and dancing until dawn. by Lee Cobaj Clockwise from above: owner Agung Prabowo mans the bar at Penicillin; the oyster platter at The Aubrey; Cassio’s lantern-lit interior PENICILLIN This stupidly hip bar is the latest brainchild of the team behind the award-winning The Old Man. Making sustainability sexy (in a city that does little in the way of recycling), it’s the first bar to introduce a closed-loop production process, reusing waste products such as fruit peeling into fermented drinks, emailing receipts and minimising its carbon footprint. The do-gooding ethos even extends to the thoughtful design, which features tables made from salvaged trees felled during typhoons and prototypes of neon lights commissioned from some of Hong Kong’s last tube-bending artisans. penicillinbar.com THE AUBREY Housed on the 25th floor, the new bar at the Mandarin Oriental riffs on the 19th-century European fad for Japonisme. A temple to maximalism, guests are greeted with darkwood-panelled walls engulfed in Victorian oil paintings, Japanese woodblock prints and brass sconces. In the maze of rooms and cubbyholes, the designers Silverfox Studios have had a field day creating a fern-trimmed main bar serving shōchū, champagne and banana cocktails, a drawing room stuffed with chintz and velvet armchairs, and the sunny Curio Lounge, where you can order Japanese izakaya (bar snacks), including sushi sprinkled with yuzu-flavoured ants. Terrific fun all round. mandarinoriental.com CASSIO Catering to the city’s beau monde for the last five years, Cassio is ensuring it stays in fashion with a brand-new look created by former Daft Punk creative director Cédric Hervet. Combining granny-chic antiques and dried flowers with Pop-art paintings, space-age light installations and Krion stone tables that move up and down at the touch of a button. It shouldn’t work but does, with a playfulness that transmits to the upbeat staff and potent drinks. The music is groovy, baby – deep house, disco, Motown remixes, enduring toe-tappers – that will have you dancing until the sun comes up. cassio.com.hk FROM TOP: COURTESY THE AUBREY, KEVIN MAK, CHESTER ONG
