Penicillin in Hong Kong has been named the winner of the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award by Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2021 for its minimal waste ethos and for championing a ‘closed-loop’ bar programme.
Penicillin Hong Kong Bar Team – Photo Supplied
The award recognises the bar that exemplifies the highest commitment to sustainability, ethical sourcing and the wider community, based on an independent audit carried out by Food Made Good Global, 50 Best’s Sustainability Partner of eight years.
Opened at the end of 2020 by Agung Prabowo and Roman Ghale – the founders of The Old Man Hong Kong, which won The Best Bar in Asia crown in 2019 – and their respective partners Laura Prabowo and Katy Ghale, Penicillin offers innovative cocktails made using locally sourced ingredients that are obtained through foraging and from local farmers and suppliers. The bar also places huge emphasis on repurposing and recycling ingredients, using commonly discarded coconut bark, used tea leaves and oxidised wine in its concoctions. Through the use of its fermentation room, the team ensures that previously discarded off-cuts from the food menu can be upcycled to use as garnishes on the cocktail list, which is a key component of its ‘closed-loop’ operation.
Penicillin’s sustainable mission flows through not only on the menu but in the design of the bar itself – ceramics are made from 50% recycled plaster, while the rustic table tops are fabricated by HK Timber Bank, using nine different handpicked trees salvaged from Hong Kong’s infamous typhoons. Even the bespoke neon wall lights have been reused from a local shop that has closed down.
One of Penicillin’s latest initiatives is its ‘One Penicillin, One Tree’ cocktail. For every cocktail sold, one Mallotus Muticus tree is planted in the endangered Kalimantan rainforest in Borneo, Indonesia. With a lifespan of more than 200 years, each tree is said to be able to eliminate 4,400kg of carbon dioxide, equivalent to 8,000 single-use glass spirit bottles.
The Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award was first introduced to Asia’s 50 Best Bars in 2018, with Potato Head Beach Club in Bali, Indonesia as the inaugural winner. In 2019 and 2020, Kuala Lumpur’s Bar Trigona won the award.
Previous announcements include MO Bar in Singapore, the winner of the Michter’s Art of Hospitality Award; Bannie Kang, co-founder of Mu in Taipei, the winner of the Mancino Bartenders’ Bartender Award 2021; and Epic Shanghai, the winner of Campari One To Watch.
The sixth edition of Asia’s 50 Best Bars will be announced in a virtual ceremony on 6th May, beginning at 6pm HK/Singapore time (3.30pm India; 5pm Thailand; 7pm Japan). The digital countdown can be joined through The World’s 50 Best Bars Facebook page and 50 Best Bars TV YouTube channel.
Click through the following pages to view images of the bar and cocktail.
