The ‘Noma of nightlife’? Hong Kong’s first sustainable bar, The Penicillin, is celebrity bartender Agung Prabowo’s new concept after quitting Asia’s 50 Best-winner The Old Man

Sep 30 , 2020

Agung Prabowo at The Old Man. Prabowo is set to leave the award-winning bar he helped establish to launch two new concepts, The Penicillin and Dead &, ready to open this autumn. Photo: SCMP

Award-winning bartender Agung Prabowo is launching 2 new nightlife concepts: The Penicillin, Hong Kong’s first sustainability-focused bar, and Dead &, a dive bar in Lan Kwai Fong with a ‘cheapskate hour’ offering US$2.60 drinks set to give 7-Eleven a run for its money

Agung Prabowo, the Hong Kong-based Indonesian bartender who won the Industry Icon Award 2020 from Asia’s 50 Best Bars, leaves his award-winning bar The Old Man today (September 30). The Soho speakeasy, inspired by the works of Ernest Hemingway, was named best bar in Asia by Asia’s 50 Best in 2019, but rather than rest on his laurels, Prabowo is hard at work on two new concepts set to open by early November.

The first is The Penicillin, a sustainable bar set to take over the former Buddha Lounge space off of Hollywood Road.

“The bar is going to be the first bar in Hong Kong entirely focused on sustainability,” Prabowo said. “In Hong Kong, it‘s very hard to be 100 per cent sustainable, it’s probably impossible … But a lot of restaurants have already tried, so why not bars?”

Prabowo is realistic about the difficulties of establishing a completely sustainable bar but is seeking to establish a closed loop system that will see ingredients used to their fullest – a concept pioneered in London at White Lyan, which drew attention for being the first cocktail bar in the world to use no perishables and even no ice.

The name is a reference not only to the classic cocktail but to penicillium, the fungi that produces penicillin. The antibiotic was only produced in large quantities once research was carried out in regards to its fermentation. This process promises to feature largely at Prabowo’s new bar, which will come complete with a fermentation room and a lab that together will produce ingredients for the bar and its kitchen.

Despite the obstacles that make it difficult for a bar to be fully sustainable – such as the large amount of energy required for refrigeration – Prabowo is setting his sights high. His aim is for The Penicillin to be the “Noma of bars in Hong Kong”, in reference to the famed Copenhagen restaurant that was named Best Restaurant in the World by Restaurant magazine for four years. Noma’s chef, René Redzepi, stressed sustainability, something primarily achieved through use of local, seasonal ingredients and a focus on foraging.

“We’re doing Noma style but for drinks rather than food,” Prabowo explains.

Agung Prabowo creating one of his signature cocktails at The Old Man. Photo: Nora Tam

The Penicillin should open mid-October if all goes according to plan. But Prabowo is not stopping there. He has a second new concept in the works: Dead &, a dive bar off Lan Kwai Fong. Located at the end of the mostly pedestrian Wo On Lane, next to the public amphitheatre, this promises an entirely different experience.

After becoming famous for upscale bars and cocktails, Prabowo and his team are going downmarket. Hong Kong’s premier bartender is promising US$6.50 drinks that will be as low as US$2.60 during the Dead &’s “cheapskate hour”. Anyone who still misses the old Hong Kong Brew House experience will be happy to learn they can toss their peanut shells straight on the floor – ingredients that staff will sweep up and try to recycle and put to use over at The Penicillin.