Owners raise the roof at The Pawn after reaching deal on terrace

Despite the recent wrangling about the third-floor terrace being public space, the three proprietors of The Pawn decided to host a grand private dinner at the Wan Chai venue on Wednesday night, followed by a party that spread out over the entire building, to celebrate the establishment's first anniversary.

It's been a headache for Press Room Group partners Arnold Wong (left), Paulo Pong Kin-yee and Alan Lo to sort out with the Urban Renewal Authority the legalese and operating rights of the old Johnston Road heritage building, which they have turned into a hip British pub food restaurant and bar. But Wednesday's bash was an unabashed success.

'It's all been sorted out,' Mr Pong said. 'It's now a sort of private-public space. It's open to the public from 9am to 6pm each day, but at night it's available for booking ... Working with the government isn't easy. It's just one of those things where, because it's a heritage site, they had to have some public access space.' And Mr Wong said members of the public don't always treat the space with respect. 'Every day, there are these guys and old ladies who go up there to eat their lunch, and then they just toss their takeout boxes and garbage everywhere, which our staff then have to go clean up. Who does that benefit?'