Comments on: Before the Masterpiece

By: Ruers

Ruers — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 10:13:23 +0000

Think 1979: you would start drinking at happy hour in the Gun Bar in the lobby of the Hong Kong Hotel (closed in ’86), then stagger along Peking Road, past the skanky dai pai dong on the corner, and if you were in the mood: “Bottoms Up”, if not, “Ned Kelly’s”, or, if desperate, “Red Lips”, with the oldest ‘girls’ in Asia, hop over to “Lindy’s” for bagel & lox and a BIG pickle, and then you would cross Nathan Rd. And the rest is colonial history, and memories lost in the mists of time and liver cirrhosis.

By: Chanboy

Chanboy — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:33:15 +0000

Let me just add that for Peter Lok, I doubt he sees any difference. In the colonial days, he was kissing the darn gweilo’s arse. In today’s SAR days, he’s kissing Beijing’s arse. Simply a change of master.

By: Chanboy

Chanboy — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 07:29:50 +0000

There is no shortage of Peter Loks wannabe these days. Lick the right boots and kiss the right arse and the door of opportunity will open for you. It’s pathetic that those kinds of people are running the show here. But that’s reality for now.

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 03:18:30 +0000

Loved the description of The Ship – have no recollection of that particular establishment, but the words would pretty aptly fit the House of Doom (Horse & Groom) in Lockhart Road circa late 1980s. There was no way you would want to walk through the door sober – you had to be pretty well gone in order to find some, erm, charm in the dirt and sleaze.

By: Virgil Tibbs

Virgil Tibbs — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 02:46:45 +0000

The Biergarten’s still on Hanoi road. Nice place. They don’t wear funny dresses now though.

There’s a Weinstube on Ashley Road. Same place? Quite weird – like drinking in someone’s kitchen.

Think the Kangaroo is back on Chatham Road.

Woodlands is in the Wing On Plaza in TST East.

I arrived in HK in 2003, and have been drinking in TST ever since. There are still a few interesting bars around, if not so dank and sordid as those of old.

By: Pete

Pete — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 15:04:23 +0000

I think it was the Blacksmith Arms. I went there on its very last night in late 1993, probably. It was part of a long terrace of pre-war buildings which occupied that side of Minden Row — all long gone, and the glitzy ‘Kowloon Lan Kwai Fong’ development in its place.

Don’t remember the Ship Inn… did it change its name to the Honey Bee? But the German place on Hanoi Road was the Biergarten.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:52:17 +0000

Would that pub in Minden Avenue be The Blacksmiths with its faded mock Tudor appearance?
Seem to recall The Ship had a large mature tree (obviously long gone) right outside causing me, on a few occasions, to miss the ship’s wheel and enter.
Don’t recall meeting Peter Lok in either however they were pubs with character that are sadly few and far between in todays Tsimsy.

By: Herr Torquewrench

Herr Torquewrench — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 06:25:22 +0000

That particularly fetid bar had some kind of feline title, if I remember. The proprietor used to stagger round late at night to the “Kangaroo”, (then in Chatham Road), sit at the bar, order a meal, and then, almost invariably, fall asleep with his head face down in his uneaten dinner.

Visiting tourists would gesticulate to the manager – did the honourable gentleman need resucitation? – but the regulars simply dismissed their concerns since it happened so frequently.

Ah – the Five Sisters (or was it Four?) – haunt of Kowloon’s demi-monde and much missed…….not to mention the dai po dong just opposite…..

By: Ruers

Ruers — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:42:26 +0000

I think it was called “the Stoned Crow”. Woodlands did not serve beer so I never went again after the first time. Weinstube still exists, I think. There was also a sleazy nightclub named “The Five Sisters”, where I once met Alan Ball, the soccer legend, on a Sunday afternoon.

That basement joint in Wellington Street, wasn’t that “The Dateline” ?