Closed-loop bar PENICILLIN, the city’s leading sustainable bar by bar legends Agung Prabowo and Roman Ghale (previously The Old Man, No.1 Asia’s Best Bars 2019), has won the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award for 2021 by Asia’s 50 Best Bars.
Inspired by the farm-to-bar movement taking the culinary world by storm, PENICILLIN is Hong Kong’s first sustainable bar that champions a closed-loop model of production that opened back in November 2020. With a focus on either locally sourced or up-cycled food and drink ingredients, PENICILLIN’s bar menu finds innovation in the true flavours of Hong Kong while constantly looking for ways to minimize carbon footprint.
“We are constantly striving to innovate the ways in which we can reduce our carbon footprint and reach zero waste in our daily operations. It’s challenging, it takes patience, and it definitely takes a TEAM to do the job! From all of us at Penicillin, we thank 50 Best Bars for recognising our efforts in this.” from the PENICILLIN team.
About Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award
The Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award was introduced to Asia’s 50 Best Bars for the first time in 2018. The sustainability rating of each bar is assessed by Food Made Good Global through a system specially adapted from their restaurant rating, which has been used to assess sustainability for over 10 years. All bars on the Asia’s 50 Best Bars list are invited to enter the award via self-nomination and the bar that achieves the highest rating in the audit is awarded the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award.
“After pouring our hearts into this project, we are extremely grateful and humbled to receive such a meaningful recognition by our peers,” say co-founders Agung Prabowo and Roman Ghale. “We hope PENICILLIN will inspire more people and businesses to take steps to become more eco-conscious, and do more for our future generations to come.”
PENICILLIN strives to be the first “scrap-less” bar in Hong Kong
The ultimate mission of PENICILLIN is to become Hong Kong’s first “scrap-less” bar – in other words, a bar that produces minimal waste by the end of the night. Prabowo, Ghale, and their dedicated team pour endless creativity into the ways common waste or kitchen by-products can be recycled and upcycled, while simultaneously self-brewing, fermenting, growing, and re-using ingredients to be used in cocktails. Ingredients including botanicals are all sourced locally within Hong Kong, with PENICILLIN going a step further to minimize transport distance in order to conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions.· PENICILLIN upcycles potato peels into bar snacksAs part of the drinking experience at PENICILLIN, guests are served free cassava chips and are also offered the option to order Ultrasonic Fries from the bar snacks menu. The inevitable result is leftover potato and cassava peels, which are turned into delicious, crunchy snacks that are served to lucky guests on random nights.· PENICILLIN recycles paper and leftover ingredients to handmake bottle labelsThe bar team makes use of materials such as leftover ingredients from the fermentation process (herbs, seeds, coffee grounds) and paper packages from suppliers, to create recycled bottle labels featuring hand-written descriptions of each cocktail.
One Penicillin, One Tree: Drink a Cocktail, Plant a Tree!
True to its mission for sustainability, PENICILLIN has launched a highly special cocktail entitled One Penicillin, One Tree (HK$110), described as a “climate-positive cocktail that would make Sir David Attenborough proud”. With every cocktail sold, one native Mallotus Muticus tree is planted in the endangered Kalimantan rainforest in Borneo, Indonesia. The fast-growing upper canopy tree can reach up to 42 meters in height and can live for more than 200 years. Over its lifespan in the rainforest, one Mallotus Muticus will eliminate an astounding 4,400 kg of CO2, equivalent to 8,000 single-use glass spirit bottles.
PENICILLIN’s reforestation work through the One Penicillin, One Tree cocktail initiative is launched in partnership with ecoSPIRITS and Green Steps Group, which provides verified proof of planting technology to ensure reforestation is sustainable and long-lasting. ecoSPIRITS (eS) is the world’s first closed-loop spirits technology that strives to eliminate single-use glass bottles and dramatically reduce carbon impact. Guests will be pleased to know that each PENICILLIN cocktail accompanied by the “eS” logo saves an average of 150g in CO2 emissions.
About PENICILLIN
Inspired by the farm-to-table movement taking the culinary world by storm, PENICILLIN is Hong Kong’s first sustainable bar that champions a closed-loop model of production. Named after the breakthrough group of antibiotics that heralded an age of medical revolution, PENICILLIN bar similarly brings a revolutionary take on sustainability in today’s waste-heavy world of cocktail creation. The bar’s prized feature, THE PENICILLIN LAB illustrates the behind-the-scenes processes of discovery and experimentation on its path towards minimal-waste. PENICILLIN bar is founded by bar veterans Agung Prabowo and Roman Ghale (previously The Old Man), Laura Prabowo and Katy Ghale, designed by Betty Ng of COLLECTIVE, bringing the first minimal-waste cocktail list to its historic location on Hollywood Road. With a focus on either locally sourced or up-cycled food and drink ingredients, PENICILLIN’s bar menu finds innovation in the true flavours of Hong Kong – while working constantly to minimize waste and carbon footprint.
Contact Penicillin:Opening Hours: Monday – Sunday – 12pm – 10pm
Contact Number: +852-9880-7995
Address: L/G, Amber Lodge, 23 Hollywood Road, Central, Hong Kong
Website: www.penicillinbar.com
