Bar Leone in Hong Kong was named World's Best Bar 2025 by William Reed, a British-based commercial publisher, last month.Supplied
The “World’s Best Bar” is two years old, located on a quiet residential street in central Hong Kong, serves about a dozen different drinks, and doesn’t take reservations.
Bar Leone, opened in June, 2023, by Italian bartender Lorenzo Antinori, had the title bestowed upon it at a glitzy awards ceremony in October organized by William Reed, a British-based commercial publisher, and sponsored by, among others, the Hong Kong Tourism Board.
While the company insists no sponsor or host destination has any bearing on the list of 50 Best Bars, and all voting is anonymous and independently adjudicated by accountancy giant Deloitte, Bar Leone’s victory couldn’t come at a better time for Hong Kong, which has been struggling to revitalize its nightlife scene as part of a wider push to boost tourism in the wake of pandemic-era lockdowns.
Hong Kong bars have always played an outsized role in the city’s public image: from girlie bars such as the Bottoms Up Club – made famous in The Man with the Golden Gun – to private members clubs such as the I, which brought Andy Warhol over for its opening, or the Foreign Correspondents Club, once featured in a John le Carré novel and still drawing in journalists and diplomats today.
Hong Kong bars have always played an outsized role in the city’s public image.Supplied
For decades, the heart of the city’s nightlife was Lan Kwai Fong, a cluster of small streets in central Hong Kong packed with bars and clubs, many owned by former Montreal paperboy turned property tycoon Allan Zeman. In 2016, Mr. Zeman opened California Tower, a 27-storey skyscraper named for his original LKF restaurant that he promised would bring the district “to a whole new level.”
Indeed, toward the end of that decade, nightlife venues were booming across Hong Kong, from the former red-light district of Wan Chai to new bar and restaurant areas popping up in Tsim Sha Tsui, along the Kowloon side of Victoria Harbour, and Kennedy Town, a formerly isolated part of Hong Kong Island connected to the subway network in 2014.
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But then came months of giant pro-democracy protests in 2019, which shut down parts of the city and disrupted tourism, followed by years of tough COVID-19 controls, including a strict three-week hotel quarantine for all visitors and 10 p.m. closing time for restaurants and bars. By 2023, the nightlife scene was struggling, and even its biggest booster, Mr. Zeman, had to admit that “bars and live-music places for expats are struggling.”
After lifting most pandemic measures, the Hong Kong government tried to boost the sector, launching a “Night Vibes” campaign to try to break residents’ newly learned habit of going home at 10 p.m. The push had little effect, however, and local media reported in September that it had been quietly dropped as a government policy and websites associated with it scrubbed.
When Taylor Swift plumped for smaller rival Singapore over Hong Kong as a destination on her Eras Tour last year, it seemed emblematic of the city’s decline, prompting renewed promises from the government to attract “mega events” and make it a must-visit destination again.
As Hong Kong entered 2025, it seemed as if the decline might be terminal. Streets were often deserted after 10 or 11 p.m., even in the centre of the city, and several “mega events” that would have been expected to boost nightlife venues, such as the Creamfields dance-music festival, were cancelled.
In the past six months, however, there has been a marked vibe shift. Tourist numbers are up, with a 12.5-per-cent increase year-on-year in August, though many are budget travellers from the Chinese mainland who decamp for much cheaper Shenzhen hotels after a day trip in Hong Kong. There is also a sense of stability, a “new normal” after a years-long political crackdown transformed Hong Kong’s identity, producing a more sterile, less boisterous city, but one that remains one of Asia’s great destinations.
Recently crowned Bar Leone has been a big beneficiary of this revitalization, as evidenced by the long queues outside the intentionally low-key, Italian-inspired pub. Mr. Antinori has said he wants it to have the feel of “stepping into my grandmother’s living room,” replete with decorations taken from his own family home.
Italian bartender Lorenzo Antinori decorated the bar to look like his grandmother's house.Courtesy of William Reed/Supplied
To be sure, restaurant and bar closings are still common, though stability has never been a watchword of the food and beverage industry in high-rent Hong Kong, and many nightlife venues are struggling, even with increased tourism and the attention brought by events such as the 50 Best Bars awards.
“Hong Kong is high-risk, high-reward,” said Jay Khan, the locally born and bred owner of Coa, No. 38 on the latest list. “You have to invest a lot of money into a business, but even then you’re not guaranteed success. But if you do well, if you stick to it, good things can happen.”