In a city teeming with members’ clubs, the question is: how do you stand out from the crowd? For Hong Kong duo Mike Wu and Randy See, the answer is wine, food and location. The pair are founders of The Fine Wine Experience, the city's leading wine importer, distributor and retailer, and it was the success of Bâtard, their French restaurant within the shop, that prompted them to evolve their passion and set up Club Bâtard.
Like the original restaurant – now relocated to the new space –the concept here builds on what Wu and See identified as a gap in the market, and also smartly sells diners fine wines without restaurant mark-ups. ‘We wanted to build a community of wine lovers,’ says See. ‘The idea was to make it as exclusive as possible and for members to be able to come together to share wine with friends at retail prices.’
Club Bâtard, Hong Kong
On first impression, the result is certainly exclusive, its impact further boosted by its home within Central Hong Kong’s Grade I-listed Pedder building – the last pre-Second World War pile on the street – alongside its design and branding by Joyce Wang, whose challenge was to work around the existing bones, which, like a wedding cake, are tiered over three floors.
Briefed to create a vertical experience and prioritise the 5,000 or so bottles of wine, Wang smartly anchored the trio of spaces by installing a showstopping glass-fronted cellar – with an internal staircase – that diners can enter and exit from each floor and wander through, to select their wines.
Comprising three different restaurants, alongside a whisky bar, Club Bâtard is classic Wang, layered with plush materials and precise attention to detail. On the first floor, Le Clos, the buzzing all-day dining space, serves up a menu of international favourites, from ‘char kway teow’ (Malaysian stir-fried rice noodles) to spaghetti alle vongole, within a space inspired by the concept of the ‘Clos’, a French walled vineyard often found within a monastery.
As such, curvilinear double-barrelled ceilings are finished with raw materials that lend an industrial backdrop for cathedral chandeliers, a custom playful mosaic-tiled floor, inspired by artist Joan Miró, and a series of cosy, low-lit booths, and comfortable upholstered banquettes, sofas and chairs. The wines in the cellar are displayed in leather slings against textured slate and – like the rest of the space – highlighted with considered and concealed lighting.
Upstairs, towards the relocated Bâtard, the French restaurant on the second floor, the wines are set against hammered copper panelling, which adds a warming glow, further enhanced by light refracted by faceted mirrors. The dining room itself is revealed through fluted burl wood arches and red-wine and petrol-blue tones; lined with woven Pierre Frey wall coverings alongside a tropical display of palm plants and greenery, the space is a mixture of sisal carpeting, marble dining tables, upholstered seating and burgundy leather banquettes.
Here, built-in marble wine coolers fill up with empty bottles throughout the night as diners sip on fine wines and champagne, accompanied by a menu of dishes like the signature roast chicken served with ginger fried rice, a not-to-be-missed Iberico pork and caramelised onion sando, and an outstanding cheese trolley to finish off.
The smaller, third-floor space is airy and light-filled, with mirrored walls and light oak wood interlocking trees that display Club Bâtard’s selection of champagnes. The new home for Hop Sze, an iconic Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong, the space has been smartly arranged so that fabric panels can be closed to create a series of private dining rooms. Minimal and modern with delicate Chinese references, a light oak and terracotta palette is layered with contrasting pleated indigo wall coverings, lantern-like light fixtures and abstracted Chinese joinery that echoes the original Hop Sze restaurant – in other words, a new chapter for a restaurant that still serves its much-loved menu, with dishes like the baked pork chop rice.
The aim of Club Bâtard was to build a community of wine lovers, promoted by a roster of events from wine tastings to talks. With a limited membership and the buzzing camaraderie of diners wandering through the cellar, it seems Wu and See have achieved their goal of creating a members’ club with a difference.
After an evening spent wining and dining, don’t miss out on the karaoke room behind Le Clos; or for something a little more sedate, OBE (which stands for Old Bottle Effect), with its curved whisky-bottle ceiling and cigar room, is the perfect refuge for a late-night tipple.
Club Bâtard is located at 1/F-3/F, Pedder Building, 12 Pedder St, Central, Hong Kong, clubbatard.com
