Built around a three-storey glass-fronted cellar, Club Bâtard is Hong Kong’s newest private wine club.
It’s interesting; while we think of private member’s clubs in Hong Kong to be throw backs to the city’s colonial past (and many are), we have also seen a raft of new clubs opening post-pandemic, each with a unique, contemporary persona.
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Opening this summer and located in the iconic Pedder Building in Central, Club Bâtard will occupy an impressive 18,000 sqft across three high-ceilinged storeys of the heritage building. At its heart will be Hong Kong’s largest walk-in wine cellar, which will offer more than five thousand references, all available to drink at the club’s bars and restaurants at retail prices, without any restaurant markups.
The club has been conceived by Michael Wu, founder of The Fine Wine Experience, a leading wine merchant; and seasoned restaurateur Randy See, managing partner of Bâtard and Piccolo Concepts, a subsidiary of Singapore’s Les Amis Group.
Luxury hospitality designer Joyce Wang has led the conversion, revitalising the Beaux-Arts style Pedder Building, which first opened its doors 100 years ago, into a chic and throughly modern destination for oenophiles.
Club Bâtard takes its name from restaurant Bâtard, located within The Fine Wine Experience in Sai Ying Pun, which will relocate to Club Bâtard as one of the three restaurants open exclusively for members and their guests. The equally hard to book Hop Sze restaurant, famed for its traditional home-style Hong Kong specialties, will also relocate to Club Bâtard from Sai Wan Ho.
The third, Le Clos, will offer members all-day options, from breakfast, coffee meetings, and lunches through to late night suppers, and evening drinks that include cocktails crafted by Raphael Holzer. All three dining options are anchored by the three-storey glass-fronted wine cellar, the centrepiece of Club Batârd.
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Club Batârd will also feature OBE, a whisky-focused bar that will present some of the world’s finest and rarest selections curated by former head of Whisky Asia at Bonhams, Diego Lanza. OBE stands for “Old Bottle Effect”, which is the bottle aging that occurs naturally over time in a whisky bottle. An experience we look bring to our members.
The club will limit recruitment to just 1,200 members (with early bird memberships from HK$100,000), offering a high level of access within the three spacious floors. At the time of this public launch, hundreds of these memberships have already been taken up by loyal supporters of Bâtard restaurant, The Fine Wine Experience and Hop Sze.
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