Founder of Orchard, Alex Pun is back with his second bar Oasis to serve affordable cocktails in a space for making drinking fun again
Alex Pun, a near-two-decade veteran in Hong Kong’s drinks scene, remembers when drinking was less of an art in the city and more a vehicle for no-frills fun.
The mixologist of Orchard and his new bar Oasis began his career in 2006. He has poured pints in Kowloon sports bars, served mixed drinks at Lan Kwai Fong clubs, and designed cocktails for SoHo’s cocktail dens.
Craft cocktails in Hong Kong are only a recent trend, Alex claims, growing in popularity from 2014; drinking was less showy and more of a party in the past two decades.
After a five-year stint at The Woods, a founding member of the SoHo cocktail space in 2014, and consultancy work around the neighbourhood, Alex opened “his first baby”, Orchard, in 2023.
“People in Hong Kong are familiar with gin bars, tequila bars, wine bars, but fruit spirits are something unheard of here,” Alex shares with Foodie. Hong Kong’s first fruit spirit cocktail bar arrived to dispel misconceptions about this growing space in the alcohol market.
“[At Orchard], we are not making fruity cocktails, not infusing fruits with alcohol, but using spirits fermented and distilled with fruits.” The difference, he points out, is key for expressing the alcoholic properties of fruit.
Orchard employs fruit spirits made from apple, pear, plum, cherries, raspberries, bananas, and pineapples in their 10-cocktail strong menu, to name a few. The cocktails share drops of ABA Pisco, prune brandy, grappa blanca, applejack, raspberry schnapps, and calvados.
A new cocktail menu at the bar is not created from a need to innovate or refresh his offerings, but rather what fruit spirits Alex can find on the market.
“ If you run out of vodka, you could borrow [a bottle] from the [bar] next door. When I run out of a fruit spirit, the cocktail comes off the menu. No one else carries these products in Hong Kong. You can’t go down to the supermarket.”
Such rarity has brought curious crowds to Orchard, eager to enjoy their limited-edition cocktails that could disappear at any second. With new bar Oasis, he has already welcomed bargoers eager to spend less for the same great Alex-style craft cocktails.
Out of fashion from other Hong Kong-based bartenders, who typically endeavour to open their second cocktail bar with the same formalities as the first, Alex lands on Hollywood Road with a modern dive bar. He wants to shake up how people are drinking in Hong Kong.
“From 2005 to 2010, that was the best time to drink in Hong Kong, the golden time. I used to work in high-volume places slinging out beer, gin and tonic, and vodka cranberries, but no cocktails.”
“People used to come to the bar, not for a cocktail, but purely for fun and to socialize with people. People used to come for people back in the days.”
Crouching underneath the Central-Mid-Levels escalator, Oasis may look sleek and shiny, but he is hoping to engender a dive bar feel as the environment wears over time. Scuffs on the tables, worn down seats, and ring stains are welcome.
Cocktails at Oasis are priced at HKD100 with no service charge included. Pints of beer are HKD80 and glasses of wine are HKD75. “People don’t have that much spending power compared to the last 10 years.”
The bar’s tap system holds seven rotating cocktails and three beers, making it easier and faster to pour drinks and serve the next person. “[At a dive bar], people don’t want to wait f*****g 15 minutes for one drink!”
Whilst Oasis’ cocktails are made in pre-batches with liquors expected at a regular bar – vodka, gin, rum, tequila – Alex is still intent on bringing his cocktail flair to drinking at the bar.
Each cocktail on the menu follows Hong Kong’s seasonality, warm and spicy drinks for winter and refreshing and light for summer, with a focus on fruity flavours in each glass.
“ There are always pros and cons working in the [bar] industry for long hours. It is hard to balance your life and always challenges [to deal with]. A modern dive bar is always something I have wanted to do.”
Swing by Oasis tonight for an affordable cocktail in a fun-loving dive bar setting
