Hop Sing Laundromat (as it looks today) retains an air of secrecy
Danya Henninger knows a thing or two about bars. And about drinking at bars. And about where to go when drinking at a bar is exactly what you need. As editor of The Drink Nation and Philly editor for Zagat.com, she gets to write a lot about her favorite subject (booze), and a couple days ago she put together a very nice list of Philly’s “secret” bars.
Brian Freedman visits with Hop Sing Laundromat’s Lêe and finds out more about the man and his bar than even Freedman expected.
As for the drinks themselves—I’ve tasted maybe a dozen and a half of them, both as part of our interview as well as as a customer—Hop Sing’s are remarkably well-balanced and complex, and often succeed in unexpected, or at least too-rarely-seen, ways. With his sixth sense for flavor and balance, and with senior bartender Robert Fuentevilla on the team, the reality of Hop Sing hasn’t just met the pre-opening buzz—it has well exceeded it.
Behind the Scenes With Chinatown’s Long-Anticipated Hop Sing Laundromat [Philadelphia Weekly]
Hop Sing Laundromat [Official Site]
Photo of The “Failed Entertainment” | Felicia Perretti
We’re entering the third weekend of Hop Sing Laundromat being open to anyone who comes up to the unmarked storefront at 1029 Race Street (Well anyone who follows these rules and is dressed appropriately at least).
It is also the first weekend that the Chinatown bar will have a printed cocktail menu. The list has twelve drinks broken down by primary spirit. The descriptions are interesting to say the least, most with a tie to American history, and one referring to a certain restaurant critic. For cocktails we’ve tried and remember, our notes are in italic.
Okay, first the big, important news for those of you who’ve been following this saga for the past year: Hop Sing Laundromat will be opening tonight. Honest. Not for a private party. Not for some kind of tasting party. But actually opening and actually serving drinks to the good people of Philadelphia. Show up, bring money, buy drinks, repeat–just like a real bar.
Lêe from Hop Sing Laundromat just let us know he posted a letter on the Chinatown bar’s web site. We don’t think it’s a Dear John letter to the city of Philadelphia, but at this point, who knows. Here’s a piece of it.
The amount of coverage came as a surprise to us, but that is what the press does to new events, items and places of interest as late American author David Foster Wallace once wrote, “it did what all ads are supposed to do: create an anxiety relievable by purchase,” except we did not intend to advertise our establishment. After al, this is a just a simple bar …
Really though, you’ve got to check out the whole thing for yourself at Hop Sing’s web site.
So yes, it really happened. Around 8 o’clock last night, Lêe opened the gate that guards the door that leads to the lobby that opens onto the dining room at Hop Sing Laundromat and started allowing actual human beings (as opposed to cajoling members of the press, though there were a fair number of us in the crowd as well) into the bar.
It was gorgeous. It was bigger than it had ever seemed before (an effect of all the detritus of a long construction being removed, no doubt). It was lit with a hundred candles, the flames reflecting off of antique mirrors and lovingly polished and reconstructed fixtures and filled with the sounds of muted voices and music. The tables filled slowly as Lêe paced the entries–two and three and four of his friends, enemies and stalkers being let in at a time–but by the time he was done, the room was buzzing with conversation and quiet music.
I got Lêe from Hop Sing on the blower yesterday afternoon and he was pissed–furious about a million different things and, by his own admission, well into his second day without sleep.
He was in a rush, after all, because he has this pre-opening, media-slash-friends-and-family party happening (tonight, as a matter of fact) and he’d been scrambling to get everything ready for it. There’d been time (hours and hours and hours…) spent dealing with the PLCB, more time spent on interviews, more time spent polishing and dusting and getting every little thing in place. The man is, as I’ve said before, a perfectionist. And the drag of perfectionism is that nothing is ever quite perfect enough.
But now, he was getting down to the wire. And the strain was showing.
“That’s it,” he said, barking into his phone. “I’m not opening. You tell everyone, ‘Lee got the fucking bar all finished and then he decided not to open’.”
No, there’s no hard opening date yet. But Hop Sing Laundromat is getting close enough that its enigmatic owner Lêe let us (and our cameras) in for a quick peek at the seriously-really-almost-very-nearly-finished dining room. There’s not a lot of shots of the bar here–mostly because Lêe has spent the last few days bringing in his liquor and that side of the room is still kind of a mess. But it is also beautiful, with some custom touches that will just blow your mind.
In this month’s issue of the Atlantic, Bonnie Tsui asks whether the rise of China spells the end of Chinatowns. According to 2010 Census data, Chinatowns in New York and San Francisco have recently begun depopulating. Whether this is mainly due to decreasing immigration from China, or high rents pushing working-class Asians out of the city and into the “ethnoburbs,” the trend seems significant. In the last 10 years, Manhattan’s Chinatown lost 9 percent of its residents—including 14 percent of its Asian ones.
What this means for food in Chinatowns is an open question, and the answers may prove to be counterintuitive. Since there’s no reason not to, consider Philadelphia as a bellwether.
50 Best Restaurants in Philadelphia
Foobooz's 2012 Top 50 Bars
Best of Philly - Restaurants & Bars
Best Italian Restaurants in Philly
Philly's 20 Best Drinks
