Hark back to the past in Hong Kong. Yes, it is coming back to life again. The Marco Polo German Bierfest may have been cancelled but Rugby Sevens is still scheduled for 4-6 November. And as restrictions are being removed there are many financial gatherings planned as frustrated global CEOs can now, after over two years, meet their Asia counterparts in person.
As so often happens, The Peninsula Hong Kong nips in with an idea that is just right for this time. New York’s household-name Studio 54 club might be a name from the past but the hotel invites travellers to re-live that history
Recover from Rugby rowdiness and conference cacophony with an evening at Felix, the Philippe Starck-designed avant-garde restaurant atop The Peninsula’s 28-floor tower. Its Nights at Studio 54 spectacular, which runs 6th October to 10th December, is Richard Crawford’s modern take on the original club (it was thanks to former Syracuse University room-mates Steve Rubell and Ian
Schrager that Studio 54, on what had been CBS’ Theatre 54 soundstage in Manhattan, in only three years, 1977-1980, attracted every name in the celeb book).
1. ‘Nights at Studio 54’ / 2. ‘Nights at Studio 54’ – Beef Steak Delmonico
This time around, the ‘celebrities’ are actors, part of Crawford’s The Secret Theatre – the Scottish writer-director is Artistic Director of the Brooklyn Studio Lab in Williamsburg NY and he’s made a serious name for introducing immersive theatre both in Hong Kong and Singapore.
At The Peninsula’s ‘Studio 54’ perhaps start with an Old Figgy, Ezra Brooks 99 Bourbon with Fig Leaf Sake. Continue to memory-lane dining. Boston lobster Caesar, Beef steak with Delmonico gratin, Tiramisu with hazelnut-flavoured Frangelico, espresso icecream and chocolate sparkles. Intermittently, Secret Theatre actors perform.
1. ‘Nights at Studio 54’ – Black Cod Manhattan Chowder / 2. ‘Nights at Studio 54’ – Boston Lobster Caesar Salad
There are various ticket prices and it makes sense to buy VIP. As well as The Peninsula’s own-label Champagne on arrival and freeflow during dinner, VIP specials include invitations to ‘Freddy Mercury’s birthday party’ in an adjacent secret room.
It’s also definitely worth staying over, ideally in one of the 300-room hotel’s end suites, say any number -07 for some of the best views across the water to the Wanchai and Central areas of Hong Kong Island. Complete the experience with in-room dining breakfast, crispest white linens set with Bernardaud and a swan-necked silver coffee pot, and the view across the water that is teeming with a crisscross of Star Ferries and other all-size water transport.
Mary Gostelow publishes the daily girlahead.com, a weekly newswire Mary Gostelow’s Inner Circle, and a unique weekly 15-minute industry Mary Gostelow Girlahead Podcast, all part of Almont Global.
