Award-winning Hong Kong bartender opens her first cocktail bar, Mius, in NoHo
Ex-Quinary bartender Shelley Tai’s new cocktail bar Mius on Gough Street is designed to be comfortable and ‘understood by everyone’
After nearly five years honing her skills as a bar manager at Singapore’s Nutmeg & Clove, award-winning bartender Shelley Tai is celebrating her long-awaited homecoming to Hong Kong by opening her first bar in NoHo between Central and Sheung Wan.
A play on the word “muse”, Mius opened on August 27, on Gough Street. The decor is what Tai calls “a mid-century modern style” – neutral colours, clean lines and practical features centred on “one or two iconic pieces”. It almost does not look like a drinking hole on a sunny summer afternoon in Hong Kong.
“We wanted to build something that leans more towards simplicity, a neighbourhood cocktail bar that is comfortable to be in and easily understood by everyone,” Tai says.
With 15 years of bartending experience under her belt, she knew what she wanted for her very own bar. It took her and her team fewer than eight months from ideation to official opening – despite Tai not being in the city for most of that time.
“I started conceptualising Mius around January this year, and I would come back [to Hong Kong] every few months. On the last day of my trip in April, I passed by this space and saw construction workers dismantling it,” she says.
“I’d always really liked this location. It used to be [a home goods store]. When I worked at Quinary, I would come and [browse] around. Once I knew this space was available, I asked some friends to have a look for me, and I signed the lease when I wasn’t even in Hong Kong.”