In July, we broke the news that one of Hong Kong’s most iconic bars, Carnegie’s, would be forced to close due to slowing business and a rent hike. Coconuts Hong Kong has now learned that Carnegie’s will live to see another day after a group of new investors stepped in to buy the bar.
Former Carnegie’s manager Duncan Smith told Coconuts Hong Kong that some changes will be made to promotional offers, but the bar will keep running its ever-popular Ladies’ Night deals on Wednesdays.
(In a perfect world, the new owners would bring back Vodka Tuesdays, but we can only hope.)
Live bands will perform from Thursdays to Sundays, but other than that, we don’t have much information on any further changes. Most importantly, however, we have confirmed that the bar-top dancing — a rite of passage for any alcohol-drinking Hongkonger — will continue. Praise be.
Following 23 years of business, Carnegie’s was originally scheduled to close its doors for the last time at the end of June. Speaking to Coconuts Hong Kong on June 15th, Smith said profits had been dwindling for a while, pinpointing late 2014 as a turning point, when the mass Umbrella Movement rallies and gruesome, high-profile murder of two Wan Chai sex workers took place. “After Occupy Central and the Rurik Jutting case, people just stopped coming. All of [the bars in] Wan Chai were affected.”
News of the impending closure was received poorly by Hong Kong residents both past and present, many of whom took to our Facebook page to lament the loss of a true Wan Chai institution. Thankfully, it looks like we’ll have a few more dances yet on top of that bar.
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