As winter turns to spring, bars across Hong Kong are refreshing their menus to welcome the new season. DarkSide takes inspiration from – what else? – Kowloon, Socio has launched a new menu with the finest upcycled ingredients sourced from across SoHo, and Twenty Fifth Hour is celebrating five years in Hong Kong.
Thursday, February 27
DarkSide’s new menu
What: It seems like only yesterday (or December) that DarkSide launched a menu of twists on classics from the Prohibition era. Now, the crown jewel of Rosewood Hong Kong has an all-new line-up of signatures going back to the bar’s – and the city’s – roots. The new menu uses ingredients like soy sauce, Puer tea, salted plums and jujubes. The signatures evoke Kowloon landmarks past and present, from the Bruce Lee (whose statue stands on the Avenue of Stars) to Shop House (a nod to the refreshed Lui Seng Chun tong lau, formerly a Chinese pharmacy), and from The Walled City to Kai Tak.
Where: Victoria Dockside, 2/F, Rosewood, 18 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
When: 5pm – 12am
Friday, February 28
Socio’s new menu
Co-founder Amir Javaid and his team has put a polished bent on the idea of the neighbourhood bar with Socio, and they’ve launched a new menu in collaboration with some of Hong Kong’s smartest venues, using upcycled ingredients. The bar and its partners are all in SoHo or NoHo, making the resulting cocktails truly local concoctions.
Banana peels from Butter Bake Shop are infused with rum, then combined with Acqua di Cedro, truffle-salted sherry, melon, rosemary soda and whey to create the Banana Peel. Peel Street’s Uncle Miguel offers its avocado skins and seeds, which are used to wash Compass Box whisky for the Avocado. Gough Street Mexican outlet Chicano provides corn husks, which are infused in high-end Pisco, and combined with mescal, mango cordial, peach and jasmine soda from London Essence. Tomato and hot sauce air are then added to create the Corn Husk.
Where: 17 Staunton Street, Central
When: 6pm – 2am