MO Bar closed and it will not come back. [The hotel’s landlord, Hongkong Land, is spearheading a US$1 billion project in Hong Kong; its Tomorrow’s Central initiative aims to elevate the city’s luxury retail and dining landscape]. We have a stronger concept lined up for the space with a similar social DNA but in a very different wrapping. MO Bar was a place that has always been very close to my heart. I was part of the opening team in 2005 and have had a 19-year relationship with this bar.
I will never forget the opening day in 2005. We were really caught off guard because initially we were told that food would not be an important component of the experience and that it would be all about the drinks—but all the guests wanted to eat. Food eventually became an incredibly important part of the process. We quickly realised the kitchen was under-designed and needed an urgent upgrade. Within two years, we had to build significantly better infrastructure to be able to cope. The Hainanese chicken and the nachos became absolute classics on the menu.
Read more: 7 F&B leaders, from Jay Khan to Richard Ekkebus, at the forefront of Hong Kong’s dining scene
Inside MO Bar (Photo: Courtesy of MO Bar)
The biggest evolution of MO Bar was when we added Please Don’t Tell (PDT)—the New York-based speakeasy-style bar hidden on the mezzanine level—in 2018. The space was initially called The Shell— an area upstairs for larger parties, baby showers and afternoon teas. But then we started to do pop-ups and takeovers. There was a real need in Hong Kong for a very intimate space. We reached out to PDT’s team and said: “What would you think of doing PDT in Hong Kong with us?”
Bars are only as good as the teams that you have. Many leading bar figures in the industry started their careers at MO Bar. Chanel Adams, head mixologist of The Bamboo Bar at Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok, played a vital role in the PDT Hong Kong opening team; John Ng, director of wine and spirits at Tasting Kitchen Media Group and the academy chair of Asia’s 50 Best Bars for mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, was MO Bar’s supervisor; and Agung Prabowo, co-founder of Penicillin and Dead &, was MO Bar’s assistant manager—so the bar has not only been an important part of Central’s social fabric, but also an incredible powerhouse in delivering top mixologists and hospitality industry leaders.
Musical giants have performed at the bar, including Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson and Coldplay (Photo: Courtesy of MO Bar)
I never wanted us to be the classical version of the Mandarin Oriental. We wanted to be more appealing to the younger crowd and have blue-sky thinking. I didn’t want to settle for what everybody else was doing or whatever everybody else was expecting. The overarching theme within the Landmark Mandarin Oriental is that we have no complacency. We are always willing to try new things.
I’m a big lover of music and I always feel that good music is an integral part of a great night out. We started MO Bar with DJs and saxophonists and violins. Twenty years ago, that was cool [laughs]. We’ve done events with Sony Music and had incredible artists like Wyclef Jean, Harry Connick Jr, John Legend and Alicia Keys perform.
Name a bar that has been successful for 20 years. There are very few. When we started MO Bar, Agung Prabowo was the bartender and he was juggling with bottles. It was definitely inspired by Tom Cruise’s iconic movie Cocktail, where Tom was the bartender, juggling with bottles and setting the bar on fire. Agung was also all about free pouring. And I would challenge him and say: “How is it possible that you pour so precisely?” Because [for me] cooking is a precise science, and when I make a dessert, I need to weigh everything by the gram to have consistency. Agung was really against it. In the city, everyone was free pouring, so we started to jigger cocktails and that was revolutionary. From there we saw a true maturity starting to settle in the Hong Kong bar scene.
Back then, average spirits were being poured in hotels. I always pushed for a premium pour within the bar. If you want to make a good martini, you cannot make that from a [low-quality] vodka, gin or vermouth. You need to have exceptional ingredients.
Musical giants have performed at the bar, including Alicia Keys, Kelly Clarkson and Coldplay (Photo: Courtesy of MO Bar)
We’re closing an incredible period and at the right time. We need to reinvent and evolve. We have really tried every possible angle within this space and I think it’s really time to write a new chapter.
We had a two-day closing event on October 25 and 26, where we celebrated incredible drinks, food and music. It’s a little bit too early to talk about our upcoming plans—but we want to create really cool experiences that are more accessible and enhance our offering for our hotel guests and also the people within the mall. I can’t really tell you how many concepts we’ve come up with yet, because there are quite a few. We will grow F&B significantly. It’ll be a unique place with facilities that nobody will have in Central.
Stay tuned in 2025!
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