It's Friday afternoon and Stephen Shum Hoi-kin and his team are busy preparing for the nine-course Chinese banquet with wine pairings at his Uncle Moustache restaurant, which is tucked away in the residential area of Lei King Wan. Shum, known as 'uncle Moustache' for his distinctive facial hair, has been serving his lavish Chinese dinners paired with western wines since 2003 in his Chai Wan wine cellar. Those 'private kitchen' dinners had a big following among wine lovers but back then, they were a well-kept secret.
'I loved the panoramic harbour view of my stockroom in Chai Wan, but unfortunately, the government refused to grant me a liquor licence to operate catering services there,' says Shum.
'That was the main reason I needed to relocate. A regular client offered me a price I couldn't resist to lure me to Sai Wan Ho two years ago. I got to select the shop site, so I chose this one near the garden for its landscaping.'
The waterfront area of Lei King Wan in Sai Wan Ho is now home to 20 food and beverage outlets. Marketing it as 'SoHo East', property manager K. Wah Real Estates has set up a website, sohoeast.com.hk.
More restaurants will be opening later this month and early next year. The Igor's Group will open a branch of its casual eatery, Wildfire, as well as Berliner, a German restaurant. T. Pot Bistro, operated by the Taste of Asia Group, will open opposite the Sai Wan Ho ferry pier.
Shum is celebrating his 19th year as a wine distributer; before that, he worked in the garment industry, sold eyeglasses and manufactured watches - jobs that allowed him to taste food and wine from around the world on his business travels.
The interior of Uncle Moustache is decorated like the dining hall of Merryvale Vineyard in the Napa Valley, whose wines are on Shum's list. The menu is a collaboration between Shum and his executive chef, and a typical meal might include a signature dish of 'lamb in the middle of a group of tigers' - named after a Chinese idiom, and consisting of minced tiger prawn meat wrapped around small lamb chops then deep-fried, paired with Confin Winemakers Reserve Pinot Noir 2007; and crisp beancurd skin stuffed with escargots matched with a mildly creamy Merryvale Starmont Chardonnay 2007.