New York hidden bar Please Don’t Tell opening in Hong Kong, and co-founder Jim Meehan’s still pinching himself
Nine years after being ‘blown away’ by a collaboration with chef Richard Ekkebus at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental, Jim Meehan is opening a branch of speakeasy PDT – Please Don’t Tell – there, complete with telephone booth entrance
For Jim Meehan, co-founder of famed New York hidden bar PDT, opening a sister bar in Hong Kong is surreal. “I’m still pinching myself – it’s a big thing for us, but I feel ready,” he says, thrilled that the project is becoming a reality.
Cocktail fans may remember PDT, which stands for Please Don’t Tell, had a pop-up two years ago at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental. It will open its doors – or shall we say its telephone booth entrance – above MO Bar on January 30.
Having Mandarin Oriental Hotels and its culinary director, Richard Ekkebus, behind the venture helps. Meehan has been collaborating with Ekkebus since 2009, when the latter organised the first edition of Masters of Mixology.
“I spent at least a week here doing events at MO Bar and Amber and I was blown away by him. I had opened PDT, but chefs at the time were down on mixology and here I was welcomed by a Dutch chef to make drinks in his dining room,” he recalls.
