Penicillin, Hong Kong’s first sustainable bar, is opening on Hollywood Road

With multiple waves of the coronavirus sweeping over us constantly, it has been a challeging year for our favourite watering holes to pull through the obstacles. With the city’s bar scene up and running again (hopefully here to stay), we’re excited to hear that industry veterans, Agung Prabowo and Roman Ghale, the original founders of The Old Man are teaming up again to open the city’s first sustainable bar on Hollywood Road.

Moving on from Asia’s Best Bar, Prabowo and Ghale has joined forces with fellow co-founders Laura Prabowo, Katy Ghale and designer Betty Ng from Hong Kong-based architectural firm Collective to set sail on their latest venture, Penicillin, which champions a closed-loop model of production by reimagining and repurposing food and drink ingredients.

Read more: The Daily Tot, a Cuban-inspired rum bar, opens on Hollywood Road

Inspired by the groundbreaking discovery of penicillin in the 1940s, which subsequently changed the course of medicine, Prabowo and Ghale’s newest bar concept strives to achieve comparable sustainability breakthroughs in Hong Kong’s waste-heavy food and beverage industry. The bar minimises its wastes and kitchen by-products from start to finish through self-brewing, fermenting, growing, reusing and sourcing locally-grown ingredients. The name of the bar is also a nod to the Penicillin cocktail, created by New York bartender Sam Ross in 2005 and is a heady concoction of honey, lemon juice, fresh ginger and Scotch whisky.

Located at the entrance of the new bar, the Penicillin Lab is a white-tiled showroom where visitors can catch a glimpse into the making of each cocktail. Further inside, there is a fermentation chamber where guests can witness the fermentation process of their drink’s ingredients.

While the bar’s menu is still kept a secret, we sure can anticipate its exciting mixologies with an eco twist. Visit the bar yourself to witness the future of sustainable drinking and see what the two masterminds have to offer.

Penicillin is set to open on Hollywood Road later this month. Following the opening of Penicillin, Prabowo and Ghale are launching a second venture, Dead &, in November. The bar will be a casual dive bar tucked away on Wo On Lane, a literal dead-end in Lan Kwai Fong. Watch this space for more updates in the following weeks.

Penicillin, L/G, Amber Lodge, 23 Hollywood Road, Central, 9880 7995