Tributes paid to Hong Kong bar owner Paul Buxton, 'larger-than-life Aussie who made the rest seem pallid'
Friends have fond memories of owner of Bulldogs and Doghouse bars, who had been in Hong Kong for nearly a quarter-century and has died from a heart attack at the age of 49
Tributes have flowed in from around the world for Hong Kong bar and restaurant owner Paul Buxton, who died after suffering a heart attack in his Kennedy Town home on October 7. He was 49.
Buxton – who was best known for his various Bulldogs and Doghouse outlets – arrived in Hong Kong in the early 1990s. For a time he worked for restaurant owners the Parfitt brothers, the men behind Jaspas, Oolaa and Wagyu. Wayne Parfitt said: “We went to school with Paul in Queensland, Australia, and arrived in Hong Kong around the same time. He was not your standard issue. He was super passionate about life and work.’’
After a stint as general manager of Joe Bananas in the 1990s, Buxton opened the first Bulldogs in Lan Kwai Fong in 2004. His friend, New Zealander Colin Smith, said: “I started Wooloomooloo at the time Paul started Bulldogs around the corner in Lan Kwai Fong.
"We shared the same work problems, philosophies and ideas.We’d meet up after work to solve these and the rest of the problems of the universe and to disagree about rugby. Later, we started up the waterfront strip on Mody Road in Tsim Sha Tsui. Paul went large and opened both a Bulldogs and a Doghouse there. The bands he found for those venues feature [former Motown performer] Bobby Taylor, who is said to have discovered the Jackson 5.”
