10 years ago, Hong Kong’s then-discreet Peel Street only housed the barely-two-years-old La Vache, wine bar Le Tambour, music venue Peel Fresco, and Italian restaurant 121BC within its cramped confines.
‘To let’ signs, disused kitchen equipment, cardboard boxes, and tattered furniture littered the street, a far cry from today’s Peel Street as a buzzy locale for wining and dining. Prior to the neighbourhood’s maturation as a real dining destination, before the bar and restaurant awards poured into the large part of Soho, it was Wyndham Street and Lan Kwai Fong that drew the crowds.
In the early to mid 2010s, Ladies Nights promotions and club nights held on Wednesdays and Thursdays strengthened Lan Kwai Fong’s appeal beyond the weekend crowds. Drinking beyond the party district’s streets was not abnormal but lacked a buzz; spirits and classics were preferred, before craft cocktails became the next trend.
As the pandemic paralysed Lan Kwai Fong’s street-level bars and clubs, the bar scene flourished outdoors and onto neighbouring streets of Hollywood, Peel, Elgin, and Staunton, and Old Bailey. In an area of Soho formerly popular with sophisticated dining, cocktail bars and pubs grew to dominate the conversation.
It could be argued that the former Shady Acres bar, now reimagined as Australian wine bar Bourke’s, was the catalyst for shaping Peel Street’s immense popularity as one of Hong Kong’s prime party streets.
As a frequent visitor to Peel Street during the pandemic, manager Brett Goss found his neighbourhood ‘local’ in Shady Acres following his move to Hong Kong in 2019. “I didn’t come to Peel Street to go and drink, I came to Shady Acres. Now, Peel Street as a whole has matured into a destination, a really unique experience that a lot of tourists now want to be a part of too,” he finds.
The “big house party” vibe Brett speaks of during Shady Acres’ tenure on the street waned slightly post-pandemic amidst increased outbound travel and great competition across Soho. This motivated the original Shady Acres team to rebrand and create a new bar concept to bring quality wine bar food and cocktails together. Brett joined the team, returning “to his roots in bars and restaurants.”
“In opening Bourke’s, we wanted to be the marquee location to provide a really great drinking experience [to customers].” As compared to Shady Acres, the new bar offers a larger food menu inspired by Australia’s wine bars and a wine-infused cocktail menu.
11 cocktails on their craft menu feature wines and vermouth like fino, bianco vermouth, sauvignon blanc, manazanilla, and amontillado. For food, expect dips, finger food, salty sandwiches, and seafood and meat sharing plates.
Offering a more comprehensive food and drinks experience reflected Peel Street’s current identity: Hong Kongers and tourists are looking to be both fed and served. “We want to make sure that we don’t alienate anyone. You can come in for [food and drinks], a house cocktail, a classic cocktail, a glass of wine, or just beer. This is the Australian pub mentality. Pubs are places that anyone can go to.”
“On Peel Street, we have a few places like La Vache and Francis West that are dedicated restaurants, venues that sit halfway between bars and restaurants, and a number of bars. I am glad we now have a broad cross section of things to do, eat, and drink [on Peel Street]. It’s a place that you can spend your whole night on. There’s a lot of future here.”
Joining Shady Acres in igniting the trendiness of Peel Street, most notably during the street-drinking days of pandemic partying, 99 Bottles has come to symbolise a return to Lan Kwai Fong 2010s-era street drinking. The bar’s co-founders Geoff Wong and Chris Tsao opened in 2017.
“The intention [with 99 Bottles] was to open a sexy 7 Eleven with a soul concept,” says Geoff. “We got really sick of drinking King Roberts [liquors], Blue Girl Beer, or really expensive alcohol costing HKD90 to HKD120.”
“We questioned where there wasn’t something that is affordable and food [in Central]. We had the idea [to create 99 Bottles] for people to minge and build a community. We have seen so many people get together because of us.”
The pair describe their hole-in-the-wall bar with no frills and simple, stocking local Hong Kong and Asian craft beer, cider, and alcopops. With only two tables and a handful of chairs perched in a corner of the bar, patrons gather outside on the dead-end road, earning Peel Street a popular reputation for street drinking.
“We were part of the movement,” Chris notes, of ushering in such reputation and popularity with drinkers during the late 2010s and pandemic years. With craft pints costing upwards of HKD50, the co-founders, alongside bar manager Benjamin Pilau, brought affordable and high-quality drinks to the street.
Seven years in, having witnessed Peel Street’s ceaseless changes, the bar’s alcohol stock is refreshed with beers and ciders appealing to both Hong Kongers and tourists. Prepared cocktail mixes from The Old Man are served at 99 Bottles, with non-alcoholic beverage options growing to accommodate for change of drinking habits in Hong Kong.
To other operators such as veteran bar manager Roman Ghale, the sentiment is shared with Brett. “Peel Street has a real vibe. The community here is small, but there are great people around the area and a high standard for hospitality,” he says.
The Old Man co-founder and a founding member of Penicillin and Lockdown shifted from the fancy cocktail space to Peel Street in 2023, opening two casual restaurant-bars Uncle Miguel and RightSideUp.
In line with Brett’s view of the hybrid wining-and-dining venues earning a solid reputation on Peel Street, and largely in Hong Kong, Roman’s Uncle Miguel brings quality street food bites and drinking to the street.
“The restaurant is inspired by my visit to Havana, Cuba in 2019 to attend a rum event. One evening on my trip, I enjoyed tacos from a wooden car served by a Mr. Miguel from Mexico. His character was strong and so were his flavours. When I returned to Hong Kong, I knew Peel Street was missing tacos and quality street food. I named the restaurant in memory of him.”
RightSideUp, located beside his Mexican restaurant, is inspired by Roman’s first job in Hong Kong. In 1999, having recently emigrated from Nepal, he joined an American restaurant in Central as a busboy. Two decades later, Peel Street enjoys polished craft cocktails and American diner-style brunch food, a quality entrant to the neighbourhood.
When held to Lan Kwai Fong’s starry past and current situation, Roman sees Peel Street’s popularity as a direct outflow from the nightlife district. “We all loved Lan Kwai Fong back in the old days, but now Peel Street has its own history.” He is currently planning on opening another venue on Peel Street in the coming year.
Peel Street has now welcomed an expansion of venues, feeding into the street’s evolution and maturation. To its north, new bars Bambino, Paragon, and Not 2 Sweet have opened in 2024. Kinsman and Yardley Brothers Craft Brewery’ taproom can be found up the hill too.
The rise and fall and rebound of Peel Street as a dining destination primarily illustrates the status of the city’s food scene. Amidst financial hardship, consumers and operators are still thirsty for new and novel experiences.
Peel Street now boasts Australian, French, Middle Eastern, Brazilian-Japanese, American, Mexican, Italian, and Korean dining options. It may pale in size and history to Lan Kwai Fong, but the street’s development is indicative of how consumers eat and drink in Hong Kong.
