Comments on: The Revisit: Hop Sing Laundromat

By: verna

verna — Tue, 23 Oct 2012 18:36:32 +0000

I stood outside and waited patiently with my husband this past Saturday night at the gated prison like entrance to the Hop Sing House of Terror only to be denied entry after waiting patiently for thirty minutes. You ask why? I was denied entry because I did not have a picture ID with me at the age of 60! My husband had his Driver’s License and I had changed my handbag before I came to CC, so I did not have it. He was not only arrogant, he was disrespectful, while making a scene on the sidewalk. He told me that he could not let me in because if a State Trooper came into his establishment and questioned the patrons, I would not have proof of age to show him… Come on Mr. Hop Sing, I may look younger, but hardly look under 21. Secondly, Mr. Laundromat asked me when I vote do I bring I.D. with me? Well, just in case you didn’t know Mr. Sing (which you probably don’t) Voters in the State of PA are not REQUIRED to show identification for the presidential election this year. Why would you know anyway!

….Sooner or later your arrogance, lack of courtesy, intimidation tactics to your patrons will catch up with you and the newness of your bar will become commonplace which will lead to your closing. I will then celebrate and dance with glee at a nearby bar of your much deserved demise. Your Laundromat will then belong with the other forgotten rusted junk in the auto graveyard of Philly.

By: BobMac

BobMac — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:14:27 +0000

I agree with SouthST…that article read like Anthony Bourdain after a 3-day bender…yo…it’s a BAR, not some friggin’ temple

By: Trey

Trey — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 15:21:22 +0000

I’ll give it to you, Cooperstreet: you can load up a Wikipedia page with the best of them.

But what does chaos have to do with anything?

The Potemkin villages of legend were a giant campaign of stage management: towns created of false fronts carefully arranged to manufacture an impression on Catherine the Great – so long as she didn’t pierce the veil and discover it was all an empty sham.

Aspects of Hop Sing likewise seemed so carefully engineered – the ID check by the unmarked door, the forced wait in the theatrically appointed anteroom, and Lee’s whole media-management strategy for that matter – that I couldn’t help but wonder whether the experience within would feel hollow, or abruptly end if we somehow strayed from Lee’s preferred script.

I can’t believe I have to explain this. It is one thing to joust over a historical reference. It is another to be deliberately obtuse.

By: cooperstreet

cooperstreet — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:19:17 +0000

For your reference:

A Potemkin village is “in modern usage, is any construct, physical or figurative, intended to deceive outside people into thinking that something is better than it actually is.”

Is Hop Sing in reality a chaotic place?

By: Trey

Trey — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 14:02:51 +0000

Clearly one of us doesn’t know what a Potemkin Village is, Cooperstreet.

But we could fix that if you just looked it up.

By: cooperstreet

cooperstreet — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 13:32:53 +0000

” And it was clear that we were entering a veritable Potemkin Village of control and stage-management. ”

So this place was in reality, wildly out of control? Or do you just not know what a Potemkin Village is?

By: Anon.

Anon. — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:17:28 +0000

Everything about this place reflects the owner’s annoying and pretentious personality.
The drinks are good but not better than anything served at Franklin Mortgage.
Agreed with @Rory the dresscode is BS because not only can you get into every specialty cocktail bar in Philly and New York without a silly dress code,the restriction to move around and talk just makes it a completely joyless experience.

FYI Mr. Lee if you are reading:
If you treat 50% of the people who come to your bar with a crappy attitude,not even all the “staged” good press you get with media manipulation will ultimately convince people to put up with your crap.When there is dissonance between your “good press” and actual customer experiences, that scam of media manipulation won’t last.You can convince everyone to come once but most are not going to come back.
The drinks are good but why haul yourself over to filthy chinatown at midnight when you can have perfectly good drinks at A-Kitchen-Vernick-Tippling Place-Franklin-Ranstead Room all within walking distance of each other and put up with all that nonsense.

By: SouthST

SouthST — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 14:14:34 +0000

I tried to get through that, but god, that was a boring read.

By: rory

rory — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:52:47 +0000

So Lee knew you were food writers (lol @ any idea he doesn’t know what you look like. you’re philly mag’s reviewer!), comped you free booze and paid you attention. Awesome. Thanks for giving him more unnecessary press.

maybe you should talk to the many of us who have been falsely told there were private events or no space because we weren’t cool enough for him (and yes, I was up to dress code. tucked in button down and dress shoes. i came from work at 6:30 pm. as was my friend who also had that experience a different night) before deciding Lee is all good.