Ranked 23rd in the most recent edition of The World’s 50 Best Bars, Tokyo institution Bar High Five continues to set tongues wagging thanks to the creative flair and ice-carving skills of bartender-owner Hidetsugu Ueno. His protégé, Yuriko Naganuma, has now been dispatched to helm its recently opened offshoot in Hong Kong, Bar De Luxe, at an intimate 30th-floor perch inside the spiffy menswear-and-grooming store Attire House. Patrons here can expect a taste of Ginza, with 16 signature cocktails including the Hidden Gem: a heady blend of Japanese whisky Nikka from the Barrel, Yomogi liquor, Averna, and sugarcane syrup. For the founders of Attire House, convincing Ueno to open his first permanent international outpost was no mean feat—it took five trips to Tokyo before the master bartender finally agreed.
This article originally appeared in the February/March 2017 print issue of DestinAsian magazine (“Luxe Libations”).