Drink in Focus: Broth & Soul at Argo

Argo’s bartender Wesley Lui and Big JJ founder Peter Pang collaborated on a cocktail that captures the essence of hotpot, inspired by comforting tomato and potato soup

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Broth & Soul cocktail at Argo in Hong Kong. Photo: Handout

Published: 6:00pm, 2 Jul 2026Updated: 6:16pm, 2 Jul 2026

What if your mother’s tomato and potato soup – the one that used to simmer while you tackled your homework – became a cocktail? That Cantonese comfort food classic is now being poured at Argo as the Broth & Soul, the celebrated bar’s newest take on the Bloody Mary.

The unlikely inspiration came from Argo’s senior bartender, Wesley Lui, and his regular haunt, Big JJ Seafood Hotpot, the cult-favourite restaurant that recently reopened in Landmark Prince’s. Lui was drawn to the restaurant’s old-school Hong Kong spirit. “It was still the masked era,” he recalls of his first visit to the original location, also in Central. “I went out of curiosity, wanting to find out why the place was so famous. After trying it, I understood it’s a place full of local sentiment.”

Lui initially pitched the idea of turning the restaurant’s signature clam soup into a cocktail. But after further discussion, the team shifted to something even more universally resonant: the humble tomato and potato soup. “We wanted to draw on everyone’s emotional connection to this well-known broth,” he explains.

Wesley Lui, Argo’s senior bartender. Photo: Handout

Yet the idea met with some initial scepticism. Lui remembers that, early on, Big JJ’s founder, Peter Pang, asked a pointed question: “How can you use a Bloody Mary style cocktail to create something that makes people think of hotpot? Won’t the flavours clash?” That tension became the creative engine for more than 20 iterations.

The back-and-forth was a genuine exchange. The Argo team visited Big JJ for hotpot meals, while Pang visited the bar. Argo’s beverage manager Jonathan Gabbay describes how the cocktail was built in careful stages, beginning with a Bloody Mary framework. A decision was made to use Grey Goose vodka for a clean profile that wouldn’t overpower the delicate spices. Pang offered input from a broth master’s perspective, suggesting the inclusion of aromatic Chinese celery and kaffir lime leaf. Amontillado sherry brings a crucial dry, nutty depth, while lemon lifts the fruitiness of the tomato.

And no hotpot is complete without some heat. Here, controlled, subtle heat is key: a gentle mala tingle achieved by meticulously adjusting the infusion time of Sichuan pepper and chillies.

A decade ago, such a drink might have raised eyebrows, but today’s savoury cocktail movement has shifted the conversation.

Lui is candid about the struggle to find balance. “To be honest, we tested so many times I can’t even remember the initial flavours. We were stuck in an endless cycle of either, the mala was too strong, or the savouriness was too much, or the tomato freshness completely disappeared.”