Scoop: Wonder Bar - First Cafe, Part II?
Ya heard it here first…
Roger’s back.
Most cocktail lovers associate First Cafe, the former and my all-time favorite Beijing bar, with the popular bartenders, George and Echo. In fact, First Cafe began with Roger and Keiko, and the former has a strong bar background in Taipei.
While George and Echo went on to Q Bar and Keiko went on to Opener? (then Japan), I lost contact with Roger - until about 30 minutes ago in The Rickshaw. What a pleasant surprise to learn he’s taking over the so-far underwhelming Taniwha in Tongli Studios, where ex-First Cafe bartender Daniel has been toiling as a bartender.
The new spot will be called Wonder Bar and, says Roger, redesigned to be “a bar”, which means good seating, breaking up that all-too-open space with a circular bar in the middle to match the long bar inside the door, and playing good jazz. If they can cozy the spot up and get the First Cafe-level cocktails going, that’ll be a nice addition to the bar scene.
(Note: Roger expects to open the bar next week. I’ll have more details on the opening and the bar during the next few days.)
4 Comments so far
Leave a reply
It sounds interesting, hope to know more details!
Hi Maria,
Roger hopes to have the bar open sometime next week, but there’s no firm date yet. He’s very good on the design side and although many people associate First Cafe with the bartenders George and Echo, it was Roger and Keiko (who’s back in Japan, last I heard), who got the place started and managed it. Hopefully, I’ll have a firm date for opening soon.
Cheers, Jim
Wondering whether you know some good bars, pubs, clubs (whatever else good for killing time) in Hong Kong.Thanks
Sam, gotta admit I’m a bit weak on Hong Kong. You gotta specialize in this line of work! Cheers, BB