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Winnie Chung

More than 40 of Hong Kong's top show-business personalities have launched a worldwide restaurant franchise headed by its chairman, singer Alan Tam Wing-lun, and game-show hosts Nat Chan Pak-cheung and Eric Tsang Chi-wei.

 The Star East entertainment restaurant concept boasts 40 celebrity investors including kung fu superstar Jackie Chan, singer Anita Mui Yim-fong, and director Stanley Tong Kwai-lai.

 The project was announced yesterday by its star investors at the Island Shangri-La in Admiralty.

 It will follow the lead of - and compete with - the successful Planet Hollywood chain, selling merchandise as well as health-food meals.

 Tsang said he hoped the Hong Kong branch would be ready by next June.

 'Everyone will look at the Hong Kong restaurant as the flagship and the model,' Tsang said.

 'We want to be very sure we have got everything fine-tuned before we open in Hong Kong.'  Work on the first Star East restaurant is already underway in Guangzhou at the city's five-star Garden Hotel. The next will open in Pasadena, near Los Angeles.

 A branch is also planned for San Francisco, while franchise negotiations are underway for restaurants in Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and Europe.

 Besides offering an opportunity to combine a meal with some stargazing, the restaurants will provide a venue for mini-concerts by their celebrity shareholders and invited singers.

 The investors hope the restaurants will also help nurture new talent.

 Tsang said: 'Our waiters and waitresses will be specially chosen. Not only will they wait on the customers, but during the less busy hours you may see them take to the catwalk and model some clothes, or even give a live performance.

 'We hope to provide a platform to help train up new talent. If they are really talented, we may even sign them up and have them 'tour' our other restaurants around the world.'  Tsang said the concept was born a few years ago when the investors decided there was a global market for the chain.

 'You see such successes with the Planet Hollywood and All-Stars concepts, where they used film and sports stars and models,' he said.

 'We have the stars here and there are so many overseas Chinese communities everywhere, yet no one has ever done anything like this.' 



HK stars to challenge Planet Hollywood