Happy Hour, Finally!

Friday evenings seem to be the perfect time to check out the new wine bar section of The Baker and Bottleman in Wanchai. We have visited their downstairs bakery section and tried some of the baked goods for takeaway during the COVID restriction times, and it felt good to be back and this time, into the buzzing bar area located upstairs with the room full of jolly people eating and drinking from Happy Hour on. 

We did go through quite a bit of food and drink over the course of evening with a few of us in our tasting group sharing the high table in the center of the dine-in area. Can’t go wrong with a sumptuous charcuterie board to start, and we could not stop laying out hands on the crispy beef scratching topped with “mock bacon” seasoning giving it a strong smoky hint. 

Their signature Scotch Eggs – one that everybody was talking about – were done with the perfect runny yolk and served with the rich (and slightly sweet) walnut sauce on the side, and the house-cured salmon, soda bread and the whipped cream cheese seem to be the perfect combination for a delicious bite. 

There’s “Baker”, and then there’s “Bottleman”. Their somm Pierre showed us a number of bottles to go with our food – casual in style, but seriously made from their menu filled with natural and organic wine selection. The Sicilian rose was a fun one to have in the summer heat, done using local varietals with plenty of skin contact giving it a rich red-orange color. The Beaujolais was another beauty, jammy, plenty of red fruits, some woody spices too. 

We had a couple desserts to end our evening with. The apple turnover was solid – toasted with a crispy crust sprinkled with sugar and paired with vanilla soft-serve ice-cream, and I also enjoyed the earl grey ice-cream with berry compote, granola and chocolate served on a tall glass. 

Happy Hour seems to be such a foreign concept to us but good that's coming back! More of those? Hell yeah. 

When? May 6 2022
Where? The Baker and Bottleman, Lee Tung Avenue, 200 Queen's Road East, Wanchai
Menu Highlights? Scotch Eggs and Pickled Walnut Sauce
Drinks?
Johannes Zillinger Revolution White Solera NV, Weinviertel, Austria
2019 Frank Cornelissen "Susucaru" Rosso Terre Siciliane IGT
2020 Laurence et Remi Dufaitre "Premices le Millesime" Beaujolais-Villages AOC
2019 Koerner "Vivian" Red, Clare Valley, South Australia
Web: (Facebook) www.facebook.com/thebakerandthebottleman