Hong Kong’s Coa Leads Asia’s 50 Best Bars Awards

by Gayatri Bhaumik

Last night, Hong Kong’s temple to tequila was crowned the best bar in Asia at a raucous awards ceremony for Asia’s 50 Best Bars at the Rosewood Hong Kong hotel. The region’s best bartenders descended on the city as the awards, which honours the top mixology talents across the region, was held in Hong Kong for the first time.

Taking the title for third straight year–as well as that for the best bar in Hong Kong–the Soho bar headed by Jay Khan as won over Asia’s discerning drinkers with an impressive collection of more than 200 bottles of Mexican spirits that includes tequila, mezcal, raicilla, bacanora, sotol, and more. At the ceremony, chants of “Coa!” went up as Singapore’s Jigger & Pony –another wildly popular drinking den–was named to second place.

Hong Kong’s cocktail divans made a good showing during the course of the evening, with seven landing coveted spots on the top 50, including sustainably-minded Penicillin (No. 26), futuristic Argo (No. 8), whimsical The Aubrey (No. 17), stalwart Quinary (No. 31), and the Ernest Hemingway-inspired The Old Man (No. 47). Omakase cocktail bar Mostly Harmless debuted on the list at 33.

Beckaly Franks, the American-born bartender who heads up The Pontiac in her adopted hometown of Hong Kong, also picked up an individual award with the Altos Bartender’s Bartender Award.

Rival city Singapore is clearly the place to go for a bar crawl involving Asia’s best cocktails–the Lion City took out 11 spots on the list. Jigger & Pony won best bar in Singapore for a third consecutive night, alongside its number two ranking, while Nutmeg & Clove rocketed an impressive 29 spots to 7. Sago House (No. 10 and Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award), Analogue Initiative (No. 15), 28HongKong Street (No. 24), Manhattan (No. 21), Atlas (No. 27), Employees Only (No. 30), Stay Gold Flamingo (No. 32), and Native (No. 42) also ranked.

 

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Speaking at the press conference after the big win, Coa founder Jay Khan reflected on how far the bar has come. “Six years ago, we opened Coa without any expectations. We didn’t know where it would lead us. Today, we’re here on this stage, and in our hometown,” he beamed. “We’d going to keep everything the same and see what happens. One day, we’re not going to be crowned number one, and that’s okay.” Ending with an homage to his city, Khan said “Hong Kong is everything to me.”