Co-founded by Amir Javaid and Max Bajracharya, Socio is one of Hong Kong’s latest bars to open, promoting sustainable cocktails and regionally sourced ingredients
Arriving in Hong Kong in 2017, Amir Javaid’s adventures took him across the region as a cocktail lover, bartender, and former spirits promoter. “When I travel around Asia, I notice that bartenders aren’t using ingredients and spirits from where they’re from, just popular bottles and recipes,” Amir recalls in an interview with Foodie.
Leaning over on the pass at his new bar Socio, the Manchester-born-and-raised bartender is beginning a new career chapter, channelling a mission to promote a cocktail narrative in Hong Kong seen rarely before: think local, but dream regional.
Translating to “community” in Latin, Amir’s new bar embraces a local network of Hong Kong restaurants and bars to recycle food waste and drive innovation in his cocktails, whilst sourcing Asia-Pacific spirits and wines deserving of attention with drinkers. Amir joined Finding Daisy co-founder Max Bajracharya to open Socio.
On the opening cocktail menu, eight drinks stand to represent distinct nations in Asia and promote their relative flavours and spirits. Gado (HKD120) mixes Balinese Nusa Caña spiced rum, a gado distillate with date, and tamarind syrup to drive home robust Indonesian flavours. Wasabi gin and yuzu-infused cacao are employed in the Japanese Rice (HKD120), whilst sandalwood tincture provokes Indian aromas in the Cumin (HKD120).
The ingredients Amir and Max use from each country are typically indigenous to the local flora and fauna. They endeavour to pair a spirit with botanicals from the same country in order to best create a cocktail story centred on one nation.
“At Socio, I want to highlight each country [across Asia] and showcase good spirits in a New World-style approach,” Amir says. In the global wine space, the Old World style “has been operating the same way for 300 years”, similarly to how cocktails “generally take on an Italian style” in bartending.
Amir is eager to explore an untouched cocktail style in Hong Kong, introducing bar-goers to rare Sri Lankan rum, Chinese white wine, and Japanese absinthe on Socio’s menu.
“I find that the whole bar scene here is good, but there is no one trying to do something a bit different. Everyone is contracted to using set spirits and drinks. No one’s really trying to push the boundary. I asked myself, how can I change this [with Socio]?”
“In the UK, for example, the bar scene is trending towards a community-focused approach of bartending. Hong Kong is missing this, and I want to introduce it.”
Amir has built a network of vendors and restaurants to source quality ingredients for his sustainable menu. For the Sri Lankan Alba (HKD120) cocktail, Amir upcycles banana peels from Butter Cake Shop to infuse into the arak mixed drink. He shares chilli oil from Chôm Chôm to inject into the Dak Lak (HKD120) and showcases leftover coffee drinks from neighbouring Barista by Givrés to use in their Old Fashioned (HKD130).
With cocktails telling Korean, Australian, Japanese, and Vietnamese stories, Socio’s Hong Kong cocktail is truly emblematic of the bar’s mission to promote sustainability and a local community mission.
Locally produced N.I.P gin is mixed with a jasmine tea distillate, sourced from a small plantation located at the University of Hong Kong. Additions of salted plum and black sesame are found at local street-side vendors in Soho, and the local honey is purchased from a farm in Yuen Long.
“People have embraced this concept at Socio because it is different. I think if you have a cocktail bar, it has to tell a story. Each drink has to tell a story,” Amir says.
“When you go to cocktail bars and you have a really overpriced cocktail, they’ll use cheap ingredients. We don’t skimp; we take great effort to source all our ingredients carefully.”
Socio opened with four drinks and leaned on feedback from customers to tweak the original cocktails, expanding to eight. Amir tasks his team every month to source and create a new cocktail on the menu, with specials shared weekly.
Seven years after arriving in Hong Kong, and having worked previously at VEA and John Anthony, Amir is happy to transition from drinks ambassador to co-owner of Hong Kong’s most ambitious sustainable bar.
“Creating the first sustainable cocktail menu in Hong Kong at John Anthony allowed me to push myself to reuse ingredients that usually people throw away. At Socio, there is more to being creative as a bartender than trying to do reductions.”
Find yourself at Socio in Soho today, enjoying sustainable regional cocktails mixed by Amir and Max.
