IN 1993 Calvin Craig, owner of Scotties, the bar which was forced out of Lan Kwai Fong when its rent escalated from $20,000 to $120,000 in four years, predicted that the area would become a ghost town by 1996. His pessimistic prophecy couldn't have been more wrong. Even the New Year disaster of 1993, when 20 were crushed to death by an out-of-control crowd, couldn't keep 'The Fong' down for long.
Within four months of the tragedy new restaurants were already sprouting up. Today, Lan Kwai Fong is more successful than ever. An estimated 80,000 people eat and drink in the area every week, spending a staggering $50 million on credit cards alone. Two new restaurants have opened in the last month and six more are due to before the year is out. Just when the area seems to have reached saturation point, another venue manages to squeeze into a corner of its cobbled streets. Blink and you'll miss it.
Blink again and it's been renovated.
Love it or loathe it, Lan Kwai Fong is everything for some and something for everyone; a place where the posing posse people-watch, where suits bring visiting suits and where sub-socialities go to schmooze and be seen. Hey, this is where Whitney, Sly and Madonna hang out when they're in town. It accommodates everyone - up to a point. In the last two years calculated efforts have been made to move the district upmarket and attract a wealthier clientele. To change its 'gweilo ghetto' image to one of a local Soho where chuppies can entertain business guests. Ads were placed in the Chinese press and bilingual menus were printed. 'We wanted to move the more raucous drinkers out of the area,' says Richard Feldman, chairman of the Lan Kwai Fong Association, creator of the Food By Fone service and owner of Al's Diner. And their efforts have worked. Today the heavy drinkers booze in Wan Chai and Lan Kwai Fong's clientele is now a healthy 65 per cent Chinese.
The district's focus has moved from being a drinking and dancing area to one of wining and dining. 'Disco is dead,' says Feldman. 'Discos and bars just aren't the hot theme any more. The yuppies are growing up. They want a more relaxed atmosphere and an evening out and still get up the morning after.' The main road was pedestrianised a few years ago and the Lan Kwai Fong Association is exploring the idea of cordoning off the entire area to taxis. European-style outdoor seating for alfresco dining is also being considered. These changes aren't being implemented solely for our eating enjoyment and partying pleasure - this is Hong Kong, after all, and money is what matters. In the run up to 1997 it makes business sense to draw in diners rather than drinkers. Although alcohol has a quick turnover, profitability is higher for a meal plus wine and drinks.
It's hard to believe that the entire area was used to collect and sort rubbish until 15 years ago; a function that continues in one corner, near Midnight Express. One of the first bars to arrive was Disco Disco in 1978, where The Green Parrot stands today. It was the hangout for the hipper-than-thou and set the tone for the whole area. Then in 1982 came Restaurant 97, the first of what would become the Group 97 empire. (Today the group, presided over by Nichole Garnaut, includes Post 97, Club 97 and La Dolce Vita 97 in Lan Kwai Fong; gay bar Petticoat Lane and the soon-to-open Pavilion French restaurant in nearby Wo On Lane and Q bar and restaurant in Quarry Bay.) Few in the transient expat community remember such gems as the shortlived Niteskool, where waitresses dressed as schoolgirls. Other once-popular expat haunts included the beer-soaked, tartan-bedecked Scotties (now Tokio Joe, after a brief life as the 'exclusive' drinking club Le Bar Bat), where drinks were $10 if bought with a Standard Chartered note; the original Mad Dogs (now a building site) which stood next to La Bodega, itself once home to downmarket basement nightclub The Beach Hut; and the first Club Carmargue (now Yorohachi).
The past, present and future of Lan Kwai Fong cannot be considered without mentioning its principal landlord and real-estate baron, Allan Zeman. This diminutive, publicity-shy Canadian owns California Tower, California Place, California Entertainment Building, 1 Lan Kwai Fong and the former Corner II building, soon to be a 26-floor tower with six storeys devoted to dining. He owns nine restaurants in the area and is opening four of the six new restaurants that will open in the next few months. He also has plans to develop a similar entertainment mecca in China.