United We Dine

Kee Foong takes a look back at a year of extremes, from the devastating impact of Covid-19 on Hong Kong’s F&B sector to the initiatives that have brought the community closer

A look back at the highs

and lows of 2020

Hong Kong’s food and beverage industry has endured a bleak 2020. The statistics are grim, as the city, and the rest of the world, shut down in efforts to contain Covid-19, with the number of visitors to Hong Kong plunging more than 99% from a year ago, to just 82,000 in March—a figure that has remained dismal since.

Restaurants and bars have borne the brunt of the slump, with strict social distancing measures compunding problems by limiting dining hours, group size and in the case of bars, closure.

While statistics on restaurant closures are not readily available, unemployment data shows that the coronavirus has taken a toll not just on people’s health, but the economy’s too. For the June to August quarter, Hong Kong’s unemployment rate was 6.1%. In the food and beverage sector however, it was a staggering 14.4%, nearly triple what it was a year ago. In the second quarter of 2019, 8.1% of workers in retail, accommodation and food services were dismissed or laid off, and 12 months later, this had more than doubled to 17.7%, the highest of any officially recorded sector.

Revenue has been hammered, with the value of total restaurant sector receipts in the second quarter of 2020 down by 25.9% over a year earlier, to $21.2 billion. Chinese restaurants were disproportionately hit, down by 31.7% from a year ago, compared to 22.3% for non-Chinese restaurants. Bars have done it even tougher, plunging 46.5% in value, though it has been a rollercoaster ride – receipts plummeted by 86% in value in April 2020, but bounced back in June to a relatively small drop of 10%, before being throttled by closures again because of the so-called “third wave”.

Going against the trend are food delivery services, which experienced a growth surge as people stayed home and ordered in. However, Lindsay Jang, co-founder of Ronin and Yardbird, also says it is not possible to sustain restaurants with delivery and takeout, which many were forced to provide or ramp up. “We have adjusted our expectations on what profitability looks like and shifted our focus to keeping our staff employed and our doors open,” she says.

Among the gloom, stories emerge of support and innovation. Tatler Dining co-organised the United We Dine campaign, which involved a giveaway. It generated 27,318 table booking clicks and spending of more than $2.28 million on submitted receipts for the giveaway alone, with an average spend of $7,774 per entry. The campaign has been extended to Singapore and will return to Hong Kong in November, along with The Hong Kong Cocktail competition to create a signature cocktail for the city.

Save Hong Kong F&B, an alliance of more than 600 restaurants and bars representing some 10,000 employees, offered discounted e-vouchers for dozens of the city’s most popular establishments, including Little Bao, Quinary and La Cabane. The first round, Wipeout 1.0 raised more than $1.5 million from e-voucher sales, and Wipeout 2.0 raised more than $2 million.

Add Oil, a fundraising book produced by industry insiders Victoria Chow, Janice Leung Hayes and Charmaine Mok, features 49 original recipes by more than 30 chefs and mixologists from leading Hong Kong restaurants, including Ser Wong Fun and VEA, and bars such as The Diplomat and The Pontiac. Fifty limited time pre-orders sold out within six hours of launching, and more than 300 books pre-sold.

Plenty is happening at an individual restaurant level, too. Mott 32 is working on a locally sourced, low carbon menu, Co Thanh is using touchless, online menus to minimise contact, Tate Dining Room has created elevated meals for home, and Black Sheep are trialling a reusable packaging programme for home deliveries – the list barely scratching the surface of what’s going on in an industry scrambling to adapt. Then there are the bright spots, with several notable openings in 2020 consistently booking out, including Indian restaurant Chaat, Korean Hansik Goo and contemporary Latin American Mono, all of which raise the culinary bar and bring much needed joy to our palates in such difficult times.