Tell us about Club Bâtard.Randy See: Club Bâtard takes its name from the Bâtard restaurant, which I ran with Mike inside The Fine Wine Experience in Sai Ying Pun. When we created that restaurant, we wanted a French cuisine focus—with a close eye on quality and comfort, and with dishes that pair well with wine. To ensure the best possible continuity, we actually closed Bâtard in Sai Ying Pun and moved the team to Club Bâtard in Pedder Building, so they are now part of the members-only experience.
Hop Sze, on Club Bâtard’s third floor, was [originally] a very popular and difficult-to-book Cantonese restaurant in Sai Wan Ho. We were fans for years. It’s known for its signature dishes, including a lot of wok-fired dishes. This has also closed and moved to Club Bâtard. Its head chef Wong Wing Kuen has enjoyed a devoted following for many years; he has brought his entire kitchen team to Club Bâtard to cook now exclusively for our members.
Le Clos, which occupies the first floor, is named after the French word for “walled vineyard”, which is now used to describe produce from France’s most precious vineyards, characterised by their unique microclimates. We really want to nourish our members, whatever the time of day. It’s their haven in the city. We offer breakfast, casual lunches, dinners, an after-work and night-time cocktail bar and late-night supper.
Read more: Inside Club Bâtard: A three-floor playground for wine, dining and whisky lovers
Mike Wu (Photo: Zed Leets/Tatler Hong Kong)
How did your wine journey begin?Michael Wu: I got into wine while studying in the US and then it became a bit of an obsession while I was working in finance back in Hong Kong. I thought it would be fun to work in wine full-time, as I could see new opportunities in the Hong Kong market.
What was the most challenging part of transitioning from a finance career to the wine industry?Wu: The pay cut—at least initially. Seriously, though, the finance industry is so strict and highly regulated. The wine industry felt freer and more creative and not always as hyper-reactive and alert as finance. I had to accept that some things move slower—sometimes much slower—but it has been rewarding in its own way.
What inspired you to open Club Bâtard, and how does it differ from The Fine Wine Experience? See: The Fine Wine Experience is a leading importer, distributor and retailer of wines in Hong Kong. By 2019 Mike had grown that business to a size that justified a 7,000 sq ft shop in Sai Ying Pun. With my background in the restaurant industry, I could see the space could support a restaurant— and so we put one right in the middle of the shop. We called it Bâtard and, pretty soon, it was one of the hottest tables in town. One of the reasons for that was you could dine at Bâtard and pay the retail price on the wines, without restaurant mark-ups—a huge saving. It created a very successful restaurant, but also really boosted the retail sales of the wines and brought new customers to The Fine Wine Experience. We knew we had a really good concept. We wanted to take that up a level. Club Bâtard includes a three-floor, glass-fronted wine cellar, complete with its own internal staircase.
Randy See (Photo: Zed Leets/Tatler Hong Kong)
With so many private members’ clubs in Hong Kong, what makes Club Bâtard stand out?Wu: Hong Kong is a land of clubs— some new and some established for generations. We knew that to take our existing concept to a whole new level and make it successful, we would need to combine five key elements. The first is wine. At the core of Club Bâtard is its three-floor wine cellar, offering over 5,000 varieties to choose from. We wanted this to be the embassy for wine lovers and winemakers to converge. Tied to that is the value. All wines are at retail prices, without restaurant markups, saving members 60 to 70 per cent compared to typical wine list prices in Hong Kong. Those bottles can all be enjoyed by members who dine in at any of the club’s restaurants or bars.
The third is the quality and range of food. There’s simply no point in offering Hong Kong’s best wine selection if we then let members down on the cuisine. Food, sadly, is often not a draw at many clubs. We took the bold move to close two of Hong Kong’s hottest tables—Bâtard and Hop Sze—and move them into Club Bâtard. Now, two impossible- to-book restaurants are exclusively for members under one roof at Club Bâtard.
The fourth is the location. Great concepts do exist in Hong Kong but they are often inconveniently located. We knew we had to be in the very heart of Central. It’s simply the ideal location, and that convenience matters when it comes to usage. Last is the quality and X factor of the physical club. Once we knew the iconic, century-old Pedder Building was a possibility, all other options evaporated for us. We knew this was it, and we commissioned one of the world’s top design houses, Joyce Wang Studio, to design the refurbishment.
Mike Wu and Randy See (Photo: Zed Leets/Tatler Hong Kong)
How do you curate the wine list for Club Bâtard?Wu: We can tap into the wide range of great wine estates that The Fine Wine Experience works with, as well as its depth in bringing old, rare vintages to the table. We are committed to Club Bâtard being the best it can be on its own terms, because it’s filling an important role for wine lovers. We have an amazing wine director, Della Tang, and her team of sommeliers. Great wines are usually small in scale, come from great terroirs and are made by really passionate people. There are many classics, but new [winemaking] regions and producers emerge all the time. You cannot do this remotely and succeed. You must travel to the wine regions you work with as often as possible and build relationships with the people who make the best wines in those regions. That takes time—sometimes years—before they will work with you and trust what you do. That’s also part of the fun, though.
How do you create a memorable dining atmosphere in each establishment?See: The part that members don’t always see but we hope they experience is that each restaurant has its own dedicated kitchen on its floor and its own service team. There’s no central kitchen. Each floor is dedicated to delivering its own concept. The Pedder Building, with its unusually high ceilings and atmosphere, is amazing.
How do you engage with the local community through Club Bâtard? Wu: Hong Kong is the perfect environment for the wine trade. The barriers to entry are low and there are no taxes on wine. Hong Kong is the envy of the wine trade around the world. That makes it easy to start but very competitive [if you want] to succeed. When Hong Kong removed its wine tax in 2008, it created many local job opportunities, not just in wine retail but also sommelier positions at restaurants, wine logistics companies, storage companies, tourism and festivities around wines—and so on. With the opening of Club Bâtard, we have hired more than 100 local staff to cater to our members’ needs. The Fine Wine Experience has also supported many Hong Kong charitable projects over the years, raising many millions of dollars for the Hong Kong community.
What is your vision for Club Bâtard?See: Our vision is to build a club that goes beyond the baseline of a great wine and dining experience to one that develops and invests in its member community by bringing together the world of great cuisine, wine and whisky in an entertaining and informative way. In the future, other club sites may be possible, but that would depend on market conditions and finding amazing partners to work with. Our focus would be here in Asia, rather than worldwide. Stay tuned.
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