5 cool hidden Hong Kong bars for the Art Basel crowd to discover

On a regular weekend, Hong Kong’s bar districts are among the busiest in the world. On an Art Basel weekend, they become a different beast altogether, the streets more densely packed than usual as creative types spill out of bars. But wait: the art crowd has somewhere to escape from

the masses: a new type of bar has emerged, ones hidden away from the everyday crowds and where exclusivity is key. While many new Hong Kong nightspots have sought to jump on the trend (advertising yourself as “hidden” is just oxymoronic), only a select few live up to the billing. Here we pull back the curtain on the city’s best secret bars.

Foxglove

The owners of Foxglove are nothing if not ambitious: their Mrs Pound eatery in Sheung Wan was a groundbreaker in a city where “hidden” often meant “upstairs”. This restaurant hidden behind a stamp shop façade eventually became the worst-kept secret in Hong Kong. But after its clandestine success, the team have branched out with the obvious next step: a bar in Central.

Once again disguised behind a fake storefront, this time a thoroughly Anglophile umbrella shop, Foxglove is a loving tribute to its Duddell Street location’s colonial past, absolutely screaming exclusivity through its 1950s-style first-class cabin design. Everything else, from its modern takes on prohibition-era cocktails to the refined British bites and the live international jazz nearly every night of the week, has been brilliantly put together. It’s the ideal spot to indulge in your retro-artistic side – as long as you can find the entrance.

2/F Printing House, 6 Duddell St, Central, tel: 2116 8949; foxglovehk.com