Iconic New York bar gives its signature drinks a Hong Kong twist - Big Fan, anyone?

At the Mandarin Oriental’s PDT speakeasy, the drinks list is a mixed bag of the original New York bar’s top tipples plus innovative cocktails featuring local ingredients

Reading Time:3 minutes

Bartender Adam Schmidt makes a Big Fan at PDT Hong Kong, at MO Bar, Landmark Mandarin Oriental, in Central. Pictures: Jonathan Wong

Published: 7:00pm, 12 May 2018Updated: 7:00pm, 12 May 2018

Many of the world’s great bars have a signature drink. The problem, as Jim Meehan, co-founder of the highly successful New York speakeasy PDT points out, is that it is not the bar proprietor’s decision which it is. “The guests decide what your signature drinks are, not you.

“We build our menus round a core of popular recipes that the guests love, and we try to create a bunch of interesting drinks to supplement them.”

Not surprisingly, when PDT opened its first overseas branch this January – in Hong Kong, at the Landmark, Mandarin Oriental – the signatures of the New York bar were featured on the opening drinks list. They include the Shark, the Benton’s Old-Fashioned and the Mezcal Mule.

However, Meehan and Adam Schmidt, head bartender of the Hong Kong PDT, which is accessible via an artfully concealed entrance in MO Bar, also wanted new drinks on the list, featuring local ingredients and with a sporting chance of becoming favourites.

More than being a delicious beverage, a cocktail has to tell a story and it has to set a tone

Jim Meehan, co-founder of PDT

One of these is the Big Fan – an allusion to the Mandarin Oriental group’s emblem, but also in line with Meehan’s love of puns: “We can’t stop ourselves from punning – big fan of the drink, big fan of the hotel, and the garnish on the drink is like a fan,” he says.