#1 Maintain a local outlook

Situated on Third Street in Sai Ying Pun, Stack (top image) is one of the latest to join the hip new establishments that have moved west on Hong Kong Island to take up residence in a neighbourhood that is fast being upscaled.

Like many of these new enterprises, Stack resides in a high-ceiling shophouse indicative of the area. But like so few, it has been designed to retain heritage and elements of local character. Read more.

#2 Make it colourful and hip

Ovolo Southside

In 2008, Ovolo Group acquired an unused factory warehouse in the Wong Chuk Hang district that was, up to recently, a rundown industrial zone on the south side of Hong Kong Island.

Six years on, the development opens its doors as Ovolo Southside, Hong Kong’s first warehouse-to-hotel conversion. The neighbourhood itself has undergone urban revitalisation – it is now a ‘gentrified village’ complete with reclaimed heritage buildings, art galleries, restaurants and hip furnishing stores. Read more.

Ping Pong

Ping Pong sits at number 129 on the lower west side of Second Street in Sai Ying Pun. Like most of its surroundings, it is undergoing a face-lift and the street has become a ribbon decorated with damp low-rises, ‘for rent’ signs, half built shapes swathed in bamboo and netting, and new shiny pencil towers jostling for attention.

Blink as you walk by and you might miss this new Spanish themed Gintonería – and that would be a pity, because it’s spacious, inviting, and quite possibly one of the coolest bars to open west of Central. Read more.

#4 Sometimes, what you need to do is blend it in…

With the influx of hip lifestyle and F&B outlets hastening the gentrification of the Tiong Bahru neighbourhood in Singapore, it’s hardly surprising that its residents were suitably alarmed when their beloved Hua Bee coffee shop closed its shutters after 70 years of serving its famous mee pok (fish ball noodles).

It’s new owner, hotelier-restaurateur Loh Lik Peng has, however, managed to conceive a way for it to run alongside his new F&B establishment. Read more.