Will Agung Prabowo’s new Lockdown bar stack up to Penicillin or The Old Man? Inside the Hong Kong mixology mainstay’s latest digs – a lighthearted concept to show ‘the bad times are done’
- Indonesian-born Agung Prabowo has been a mainstay in Hong Kong’s mixology scene since he helped open the Landmark Mandarin Oriental’s in 2005, then worked at Shangri-La and Lily & Bloom
- Now he’s just opened Lockdown with his wife Laura in Tai Kwun, which focuses on Prohibition-era cocktails after sustainable Penicillin and ‘upscale dive bar’ Dead&
Agung Prabowo’s new bar Lockdown is easily recognisable – it’s the one with the toilet in the front window. We tried to imagine this as a Marcel Duchamp-esque moment, the Hong Kong bar scene’s very own Fountain (1917) – a homage to the French sculptor who in 1917 famously put a urinal in New York’s Grand Central Gallery. Perhaps Prabowo was calling into question the preponderance of Prohibition-styled cocktail bars in 2023, or of their existing a speakeasy “hidden” on Hollywood Road? Here, in the shadow of Tai Kwun’s gallery spaces, the setting is appropriate for such a statement.
“It’s just a fun concept,” remarks Prabowo, spoiling our pretensions. He goes on to explain that the toilet is something of a joke that got out of hand while also existing as a throwback to the pandemic that inspired the bar’s name. “It’s a reminder of that period. We all spent a lot of time in the toilet,” he chuckles, “doing Covid-19 tests and swab tests there.”
Prabowo needs little introduction, but we’re going to give him one anyway. The man has been a mainstay of the Hong Kong mixology scene ever since the Mandarin Oriental Jakarta sent him here to assist with the opening of the Landmark Mandarin Oriental in 2005. In the years since, the Indonesian import has worked at and headed some of Hong Kong’s most notable nightlife names including the Mandarin’s MO Bar, Shangri-La’s Lobster Bar & Grill, and Lily & Bloom, before opening The Old Man in 2017, a revolutionary concept that topped the Asia’s 50 Best Bars ranking two years later. Just as daring were Prabowo’s subsequent concepts – the sustainability-focused Penicillin and the paradoxical upscale dive bar Dead&.
At his previous concepts, Prabowo tackled various different styles of drinks, from high tech rotovaped creations to simple slushies. At Lockdown – co-founded by Agung and his wife Laura – the focus is on classic Prohibition-era cocktails reinvigorated with contemporary means and methods, an approach reaffirmed by bar manager Lee Morris, previously of Kyle & Bain, who will handle much of the day-to-day operations.
“These forgotten classics are good and we use them as the base of our own recipes, but we want to elevate their flavours,” says Morris. “Basically, we’re using the ingredients, the tools and the knowledge that we have access to now that they didn’t have back then, to update these cocktails to modern standards.”
Lee uses the Scofflaw as an example of how Lockdown will do just that. Although invented in Paris, the cocktail’s name is a reference to the speakeasy denizens of America, individuals literally scoffing at the law while continue to booze throughout the long years of Prohibition, between 1920 and 1933.
Even though people don’t want to remember the bad things – those bad times made everyone stronger. For me and all of us here, lockdown was a time for to learn
Primarily a mix of bourbon, dry vermouth and grenadine, Lee describes the traditional Scofflaw as “cool as an old school cocktail but a bit uninspired these days” before going on to reveal how he and Prabowo have modernised it: “It’s still bourbon-based but we’ve added some maple syrup, a bit of miso, a bit of lychee and some blueberry. It’s acidic while still being a fruity and approachable whisky cocktail.”