Why a Chinese-Canadian food writer has made Hong Kong cocktail bar Kinsman a shrine to Cantonese liquor – to revive the city’s ‘forgotten history’

Vancouver-born food writer Gavin Yeung, who has worked for Vogue and Tatler, opened his Hong Kong bar after becoming interested in obscure Cantonese spirits

He explains how he came up with some of Kinsman’s cocktails, his urge to preserve old Hong Kong culture and the influence of Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love

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Hong Kong cocktail bar Kinsman’s founder, Gavin Yeung. Born in Vancouver, the Chinese-Canadian food writer turned bartender talks about his mission to save Hong Kong’s “forgotten history” by serving drinks made with Cantonese spirits. Photo: May Tse

Published: 12:45pm, 7 Dec 2023

“Places without stories are very forgettable. If they don’t have a message, or a purpose to communicate, then people will forget about [them] quickly,” says Gavin Yeung, the Canadian-Chinese co-founder of a newly opened cocktail bar in Hong Kong’s SoHo neighbourhood.

As a seasoned food writer – his résumé lists the likes of Hypebeast, Vogue and Tatler Dining, where he is currently senior dining editor – the power of the pen is not lost on Vancouver-born Yeung. It’s why his first hospitality venture, Kinsman, in collaboration with hospitality group Singular Concepts, is layered with Hong Kong folklore.

It is also a platform for the recognition of Cantonese spirits; the backbar here may seem sparser than most, but it represents living history, a gallery of underappreciated and often misunderstood spirits manufactured in and around southern China.

The line-up includes snake wine from Hong Kong restaurant Ser Wong Fun, a snake soup specialist, mui gwai lo, a rose-scented sorghum spirit commonly used in the preparation of char siu barbecued pork and preserved sausages, and yuk bing siu – literal translation jade ice spirit – a traditional Cantonese liquor made with steamed rice that is macerated in pork fat.

Kinsman’s backbar, sparser than most, is a gallery of underappreciated and often misunderstood spirits manufactured in and near Hong Kong. Photo: May Tse

There is also a collection of baijiu from around China, although Yeung is adamant that the “first tier” of spirits that Kinsman will focus on is Cantonese, before expanding to those from mainland Chinese and Taiwan, and then selected bottles from around Asia.

Yeung was intrigued by Cantonese and Chinese spirits long before he began dabbling in bartending. As a writer, he has always aimed to “look at parts of the picture that other people are not looking at”.