A NIGHT AT OPIUM is far beyond the average punter's wildest dreams. With a GBP45 (HK$576) entry fee and menu prices to match, the sumptuous London club which opened in 2000 is a magnet for the glitterati.
Big names attracted include Hollywood heart-throb George Clooney, who adores the lobster. Others hooked on the food and feel range from Kate Moss, Jade Jagger and Stella McCartney to Joaquin Phoenix, Billy Zane and the French chill-out maestros, Air.
Opium belongs to the Breakfast Group, which, according to its visionary Kowloon-born owner Eric Yu, is the biggest independent 'bar/club' company in London. Under the group's umbrella, there are 10 establishments mainly, like Opium and the design-award-winning Saint, scattered around Soho.
'I would love to do something in Hong Kong some day,' Yu declares, seated in a corner of Opium. 'I still regard Hong Kong as my spiritual home and my birthplace. However, I do think I know the market in England, and London in particular, much better than I know the market in Hong Kong.'
He then reveals his next venture will be, of all things, a tapas bar - but not the standard bright and basic type. The name Yu has dreamed up, Salvador and Amanda, says it all, alluding to the bizarre liaison between Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dali and Amanda Lear, the Hong Kong-born transsexual disco diva. Scheduled to open in June this year off London's Shaftesbury Avenue, near Chinatown, Yu's brainchild will, he promises, have a 'funky' interior.
'Theatre is always important,' Yu says. Opium is meant to resemble a Vietnamese opium den: the club boasts bespoke French furniture, ornate wooden screens, velvet swathes and a drinks menu that includes 1964 Dom Perignon at GBP625 a bottle.