Seeing the smaller boys of Hong Kong’s food and beverage business reading the latest issue of HK Magazine- and IT’S not what it used to be either, chitlins- and reading every line, word, nuance, some naive quotes, and one glaring hypocritical quote, all under the heading of something about being “So over SOHO”, made me laugh, cry- with more laughter- and realize the problems of blinkered, insular, myopic thinking that takes everything at face value.
Not to say that I am correct all the time, but anyone who has lived in Hong Kong as long as I have, knows that Soho was a NoGo from day one.
It was Alan Zeman’s bitch, which was given as much rein as The King Of Lan Kwai Fong would allow the area to have.
Soho was a dumping ground for the overspill from LKF- the poor man’s Lan Kwai Fong- and all was fine until Big Al slowly moved his business operations to Mainland China.
I admire Alan greatly and like him, and his timing has always been impeccable- like when he got outta the horse racing game.
His foray into films and the flop of Dungeons And Dragons, well, we all need to learn the hard way.
As for HK Magazine’s ending chord to Soho, no big deal.
The area has been surviving on life support for around three years and made worse through a monopoly situation.
This is where 1-2 cash-flushed companies in the restaurant trade have overpaid for venues because they can, and, disgustingly, overpaid staff simply because of the colour of their skin.
All this and a lack of creativity has created an over-supply of a mediocre chain of tedious sameness that many stay well away from due to them having a zero point of difference yet over-charging on everything to try and pay for the over-the-top rentals- and those “special salaries” for expat staff.
It’s a bad, sad domino effect and it can’t be stopped and it should never have reached this tipping point.
Soho and the SoHoites will continue to plod along with the same muppets singing the same old song without looking in the direction of Shun Tak Centre and the conga line waiting for a hydrofoil that can get you to Macau in an hour.
Miss a ferry and grab a helicopter- a 20 minute flight to the land of a thousand Watusi dances and never ending adventures while taking a walk on the wild side.
Now, add to the this the NEW Macau and its OWN Soho area, which has been heavily advertised in the past few weeks- and with many paid well to hype it up and promote it.
Macau has everything Hong Kong doesn’t- land, low rents, empty buildings and, like social media, needs content- Macau needs venues- and these venues, aka as restaurants, are VERY inexpensive compared to getting stiffed in Hong Kong- and not only in boo hoo Soho- and this has become the weekend playground for many.
Leave on Friday morning and return late Sunday night or Monday morning and leave the stress and sameness of Hongkers behind.
What’s more- and why so many don’t get this is baffling: Macau offers consumers the complete package- casinos, shopping, horse racing on weekends, huge outdoor music events, boxing tournaments, the chilled out small hotels in Taipa, NEW artists flown over to the casinos as part of junkets to entice the heavy rollers, wine, plenty of women and song- and not the usual Peel Fresco suspects.
Simply put, Hong Kong is simply not attracting any form of newness- musical, entrepreneurial, and, very sadly, a distinct lack of interesting, down-to-earth people doing interesting things with their lives and not pie-in-the-sky wankers from broke countries in Europe and, supposedly, in the “financial sector”, which means they are either jobless or “consultants” or foodie bloggers.
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