NY speakeasy takes over HK’s Landmark Mandarin

Diageo’s World Class spirits and the Landmark Mandarin Oriental have teamed up to bring New York’s ‘Please Don’t Tell’ bar to Hong Kong in January.

Jim Meehan (L) and Jeff Bell pose at the PDTpop-up at The Attic, Black Pearl on August 6, 2015 in Melbourne

Winning ‘World’s Best Bar’ in 2011, the ‘Please Don’t Tell’ (PDT) speakeasy-style bar will descend on Hong Kong from 5-30 January featuring 12 drinks tailored towards Hong Kong’s ‘drinking culture.’

Lurking in The Shell at MO Bar, guests will step into the bar through a hidden entrance in a phone booth upstairs to find a recreation of PDT, complete with bartender and founder, Jim Meehan and head bartender Jeff Bell manning the bar.

Twelve cocktails will be on offer, including ‘Benton’s Old Fashioned’ made with bacon-infused Bulleit Bourbon, bitters and maple syrup; ‘Cardinal’, a rosy-hued aperitif using Tanqueray No. Ten gin and ‘1-2 Punch’, a Scotch and beer combination using the Singleton of Glen Ord, lemon, grapefruit, citrus oleo-saccharum topped with a crisp lager.

Meehan said: “We couldn’t be more grateful for the opportunity to join Chef Richard Ekkebus and his team to bring PDT to the Landmark Mandarin Oriental with World Class and the Diageo Reserve portfolio for the month of January.  It’s been six years since my last visit to the Hong Kong, which has emerged as one of the most dynamic cities on the global cocktail scene in my absence.”

PDT has already had pop-ups in Melbourne, Tokyo and Paris, with Hong Kong being the second Asian destination. Meehan said that the event will “cement the city as the pre-eminent destination for cocktails in Asia.”