Is Covid-19 the final nail in the coffin for Hong Kong’s Soho bar and restaurant district?
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Weaving through central Hong Kong is the world’s longest outdoor escalator, which for years has carried patrons from the city’s glass skyscrapers deep into streets full of restaurants overflowing with expats and tourists.
Nowadays, on a quiet escalator ride home one passes by rows of boarded up eateries. On a recent Thursday evening, many sat virtually empty from 6pm to 11pm. A waitress said she serves two to three tables a night, and that her employer has just two more months to survive. She has to take up to three days off a week, instead of one.
Soho, once the heart of Hong Kong’s food and beverage industry offering Indian, Israeli, Korean, Spanish, Italian and Sri Lankan cuisine, has begun to change colours. About half of the shops on Elgin Street are deserted. Down the steep hill and past the wooden hoardings is Staunton Street, where Burger King sat until earlier this month. On this route 21 out of 39 restaurants have shut down.
“As it got quieter and less people were coming up the escalator, we couldn’t survive. We just couldn’t turn a profit,” said Kim Minards, managing director of Enoteca Group, which closed its Spanish bar Iberico & Co in Soho in early January.
This was despite its landlord offering a 20 per cent rent reduction for Iberico’s last three months of business. The tapas bar paid HK$380,000 (US$48,895) a month in rent. Fourteen employees lost their jobs.