Bianca and I we were walking home from dinner at a friend's place the other night -- which we see as one of the great perks of living in the city in a walkable neighborhood -- and we stumbled upon a new bar in Koreatown on Bloor Street. Neither of us had heard of the place before, but there was loud electronic music emanating from the building and an obscene amount of neon-like lights inside, and so naturally we decided to investigate it further.

We immediately crossed the street, walked inside, and found this:

This, it turns out, is a cyberpunk-themed bar called Zui Beer Bar. They have another location at Yonge & Finch, which is arguably now a bigger Koreatown than our older one here on Bloor, and so this is their latest location. It only opened a few weeks ago.

They serve asian street food (which we didn't try since we were full from a wonderful dinner). They're also very obviously trying to create a fun party vibe. On every table is a light. The QR code is how you order things. But there's also the option of alternating the light between yellow and purple. Yellow means you want to be left alone. And purple means, "come join our table." It's a bit like the Grizzly House in Banff where every table has a phone and making cold calls is encouraged.

It's the kind of bar and restaurant that will transport you into a different world. I was imaging that we were in a John Wick movie discussing some sinister plot. And at some point, we were going to get up, tug on one of the infinity neon art pieces, and then be led down a secret passage to people of questionable moral fiber. That never happened, but we loved the music and we loved that the owners just went for it.

At the very least, it will make you feel like you're in some futuristic Asian city. The kind that would have LED dragons animating across their downtown office towers.

I like this article and photo essay in the Guardian talking about “Hong Kong’s fight to save its neon shimmer.” Neon lights have been a ubiquitous feature of the Hong Kong nightscape since about the middle of the 20th century. They were an outcropping of increasing economic prosperity. And in many ways they really represent the culture of the city – a frenetic free market where entrepreneurs have no choice but to compete for attention. 

But thanks to more restrictive sign ordinances and new technologies (though LED can be made to look pretty similar to neon), there’s growing concern that a fundamental part of Hong Kong’s urban landscape may be disappearing. The article mentions a newish (2017) advocacy group called the Hong Kong Neon Heritage Group, which is trying to raise awareness about the city’s remaining lights.

Love live the neon.

Photo by Sean Foley on Unsplash