We start a new project, “Five questions to fight back the crisi”, with the Agung Prabowo’s interview, co-owner and manger of The Old Man HK and SG.
Thanks Agung, first of all, tell us who you are
Hi my name is Agung Prabowo, Co-Owner & Founder THE OLD MAN HK & SG.
Could you describe, in short, your bar, its mood and your philosophy of bar?
Down a small set of stairs, The Old Man is hidden away in an unremarkable-looking lane just off Aberdeen Street, its location marked only by a square sign and an overhead lamp. Once you step through the door, however, it’s anything but unremarkable. Intimately sized at 1,000 square feet, The interior of The Old Man is warm and inviting, resembling a stylish living room rather than a cocktail bar. The first thing you’ll notice is the I-shaped bar, behind which hangs the visual centerpiece of the entire space: a custom-built art installation depicting Hemingway’s likeness. The adjacent walls contain square cutouts that display various bottles of booze as well as books, a visual reminder of the bar’s literary leanings.
Agung Prabowo
Behind the bar is where the drinks are made, naturally, but there are stools placed around the other three sides, allowing guests to sit and observe experimental mixology in action. Here, they will also be able to enjoy one of The Old Man’s signature design features: the bar’s built-in cooling strip, which keeps drinks placed on top of it cold.
No bottle display behind the bar, but a portrait of Hemingway – made of excess materials leftover from building the venue – watching over one end of the bar. Our cocktails directions are EXPERIMENTAL COCKTAILS using a lot of culinary techniques and laboratory gadgets during the prep to produce good result and complexity of the drinks.
The cocktails at The Old Man draw upon a wide variety of influences from the Hemingway itself. The cocktails are named after Hemingway’s book.
The book/novel has connections with the cocktails as Hemingway sometimes wrote the cocktails in his book or even he drank it when he was looking for the inspirations.
In short: SEXY, STYLISH, EXPERIMENTAL, DIFFERENT
Coming to the covid-19 crisis, how did you react humanly, psychologically at the spread of the virus and the consequent lockdown?
First, we have never ever expected this pandemic affecting the industry. What a challenging time not only for THE OLD MAN but for the industry too.It has tremendously dampened our sales and the morale of the team as we are unable to achieve more revenue and at the same time we’re afraid for our own safety as well as our family. Adding to that, we are also afraid of what is going to happen to our livelihood
The Old Man
if we can’t ride out these unforeseen and unpredictable times.
When the re-opening will be announced in your country what you will concretely do? what action will you put into practice?
I think we are going to have shots with all the team and the guests in the bar (He smiles). Just want to celebrate that the small prohibitions era has ended!
To always follow the local governments rules by always keeping safety measures to the social distancing guidelines as follow:
• Enough face masks for all the staff who will be working.
• Notices announcing on our social media to inform guests that the temperature check is conducted. Anyone above 37.5C will not be allowed to enter the premises.
• Entry will be denied if guests have been overseas in the past 14 days
• temperature check is conducted to all guest & staff before entering the venue
• Disinfecting surfaces before and after each guest seated
• We handed hand-sanitizer to all the guest upon seated
• Temperature check is performed at the door
Winner take nothing
• Guests should wear a face mask upon entry
• Maintain a 1.5m social distance between groups of 4 people at most
• Provision of paper envelopes to store face masks
What do you suggest to those who will be facing the re-opening phase soon?
Well I think different cities or countries have different rules, but again we can be so excited about the re-opening phase, but remember this is just the beginning of our era how to survive in the upcoming month as the business won’t be run as normal like before. Beware of your cash-flow
