It’s Friday 7pm. In the lift to Felix, the rooftop bar and restaurant at The Peninsula, Hong Kong. Step in here and enter another world, a world created by imaginative French designer Philippe Starck: even as you enter the lift, you realise you are stepping into another world. The rippling walls are reminiscent of the entangled roots in a rainforest and as the lift ascends to the 28th floor, the lights become dimmer.

Step out and you enter a space where nothing is quite what it seems, where the long table in the far centre of the restaurant doubles as a catwalk (for fashion shows) and you sit with your back on the faces of international celebrities (including Monsieur Starck!); and where the rippling patterns in the lift are echoed in a swirling wall of light behind the long table.

Now it’s up the stairs of a curled snail-like shape and into The American Bar. Quite a head-spinning experience. But wait. Maybe it was that cocktail? That cool pale orange slip of a thing which glides down the throat and leaves you …now where was I?

Um…yes…with that cocktail. Sorry, the orangey pink glow suffusing the floor distracted me for just a second (Monsieur Starck has inserted lights under the perspex floor and also under a long communal table where people meet and chat).

An elegant young French woman has just asked for a Pearl of the Orient from the impeccable white-coated Chinese barman. As he begins to pour the liquid balm, he tells her: "It's the perfect drink for a hot summer night". He pauses and smiles knowingly. She leans closer into the bar. He starts with a splash of Chinese wine.

"A very traditional Chinese wine made from the Kuei-Hua flower," he explains. "Followed by a long shot of Galliano". He reaches for the tall narrow bottle and pours in the golden herb-infused liquid. "And then a little Cointreau," he adds. The rippling patterns of light and movement on a wall at the back of the room make my head swirl and the leather banquettes around the wall of The American Bar seem to slope even further outwards. "And finally some freshly squeezed orange and a little lemon juice - to balance the sweetness."

 

He pauses then puts on the lid of the cocktail shaker and begins to shake the heady liquids together. He does it with such flair. Such theatricality. Shake, shake…his eyes remaining on her. The curtain ruffles around the bar flutter. "L'amour" wrote Philippe Starck "est une spece en voie de disparition." (love is in danger of disappearing). But not here – not in this intimate space of curtains and hidden lights. Now he has stopped shaking and is getting ready for the final act.

A chilled martini glass appears. Off comes the lid and into the glass falls a frothy orange drink, a colour reminiscent of early dawn. When it reaches three-quarters of the way up the glass, he stops and turns his back. Then he turns around again and deftly garnishes the rim with a half moon shape of orange and a cherry.

She accepts his offering and sips the cocktail. I am so mesmerised by this double act that I ask for one myself. A different barman informs me that the cocktail was created by James Lee a few years ago for a competition at the Hong Kong Convention Centre. Hong Kong is frequently referred to as The Pearl of the Orient and the idea was to make a cocktail which evoked the essence of this quintessential east-meets-west city.

I note that the Chinese wine has a 15 per cent alcohol content, the Galliano 35 per cent and the Cointreau 40 per cent. It is a potent mix. An east-west marriage.
But what else would you expect from the most exotic hotel east of Suez?

The Peninsula, Salisbury Road, Tsimshatsui, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

For reservations at Felix:
T: 852-2315 3188
E: dining.pen@peninsula.com

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