Cocktail chat: Lorenzo Antinori, Bar Leone
Bar Leone’s Lorenzo Antinori tells The Spirits Business why his Hong Kong venue champions simplicity when it comes to cocktails.
*This feature was originally published in the March 2025 issue of The Spirits Business magazine.
“I think bartenders are worried about doing things that are maybe a little bit simpler, because they’re like ‘either we are not cool or we’re not relevant’ and then they suddenly try to come up with great or big ideas”. Lorenzo Antinori, owner of Hong Kong’s Bar Leone, is talking about over complication, which can be pervasive in the drinks industry.
‘Don’t be afraid of being simple’ is the message Antinori wants to purvey. The little things also matter. While there can be an element of one-upmanship in the bar world, with bartenders on the quest to find the next big trick, Antinori is happy to sit back and keep things simple. “There’s a beauty in simplicity,” he stresses. Bar Leone was founded in 2023 after Antinori secured a central spot in SoHo. In its two years of existence, the bar has found great success with both aficionados and casual crowds alike. You won’t find anything too flashy with the drinks.
Accessible to everybody
Antinori, who was previously at another big-name Hong Kong bar, Argo (a venue that uses modern bar equipment and cocktail-making techniques), is focusing on classic cocktails, and tweaking their structure. “I wanted to create a programme that I wouldn’t say goes backwards, but almost goes sideways from the direction where most bars are going, and specifically my past experiences. I wanted something that would be more understandable and accessible for everybody, and more approachable, without the need for necessarily explaining larger-than-life concepts beyond the drink.”
An issue that Antinori has previously had with big teams and high concepts, aside from money, was also consistency, or a lack thereof. “It’s very hard to make sure that every drink will taste the same. Our number-one priority is making sure that every drink at Bar Leone, doesn’t matter who makes it, comes out the same.”
Bar Leone’s menu, which changes every couple of months (allowing the team to create new drinks), therefore might include a Negroni made with Never Never’s coffee and cacao gin from Australia (almost like a tiramisu gin), and with good-quality ice, and attention paid to the temperature of the glass. In summer, a Bellini is made with fresh peaches, orange blossom water, and good-quality Prosecco. It also has a beautiful fluffy head, made via a milkshake machine with a couple of drops of a foaming agent. Bar Leone’s Americano is presented in the original glassware from Campari, from Camparino bar in Milan, the home of the aperitivo. “It’s not rocket science,” Antinori says. “We look at the little details and think about how we can add value. The idea is to see how we can take something that is so simple and somehow so well known, but present it in a way that is different, and that adds quality to the experience of the guest.”
‘What makes us special’
The recipes for the bar’s drinks aren’t hidden away, with the bar openly sharing these on social media and on its website. The bar handles cocktails, not classified data. Antinori says: “At the end of the day, it’s a recipe, and everybody can make drinks. What people really cannot do, or maybe what really makes us special, is replicate the code of the bar.”
This code is perhaps the most important part of what makes Bar Leone tick. The code in question is its motto: ‘cocktail popolari’, meaning ‘cocktails for the people’ in English.
Antinori hails from Rome, and the bar’s design and decorations nod to the Italian culture that he lived through in the 1980s and 90s; films, music, and football. A portrait of a former AS Roma (football club) striker Gabriel Batistuta hangs from the wall, as do vintage photos of famous TV presenters, and film scenes. “It’s part of our identity,” he says. “Popolari doesn’t necessarily mean famous, it means widespread among people or an expression of local popular culture.” Antinori adds that people might not understand everything, but the bar acts as a social experiment: “People will feel somehow automatically transported to a different time, and we’ve tried to create a place that transmits this idea of nostalgia, this idea of old times”. That’s another point Antinori wants to make, that even though Bar Leone hasn’t been open for long, he says, “it feels as though it’s been there forever.”
“I took a lot of references from bars that I love, but also from my childhood, when I used to go to the café down from my house, as well as other places, to see their designs. The framework is Italian, and the voice wants to be Italian, but with an international brief.”
A ‘home away from home’ atmosphere is something every neighbourhood bar claims to have, and should have, but Bar Leone ramps it up, as Antinori explains: “When you enter, it’s almost like you’ve entered your grandma’s living room. It’s a place where you’re safe, where you are comfortable.”
Food is also central to the operation, or “an anchor to have people stay longer”, as Antinori describes it. “After Covid, a lot of bars are now embracing and investing more in the food programmes, as there’s an element of conviviality where people get together around drinks and food”.
Bar Leone’s house-smoked olives (using wood chips) and focaccia sandwiches are some of its best sellers. You can also pull up and simply have a beer, or an espresso. “For me, it’s not that you’re gonna have the best meal of your life here, no, but I’m sure that you will have a good time. The food is nice enough to have you order more cocktails and share them with your friends,” Antinori says.
Pride in simplicity
Establishments of Leone’s nature that take pride in simplicity and nailing the basics are growing in popularity – Bar Pompette in Toronto is another example (in April it will host a takeover at Leone). On the ‘rise of simplicity’, Antinori feels that “people are tired, or the new generation doesn’t care about drinking in the same way we did. At least it’s not the priority.”
Intricate cocktails may rule the roost now, but Antinori doubts how relevant they’ll be in a few years’ time. “There will be something else new, and, for us, well, we want to create a timeless space that in five years will still be open no matter what the trends are – just well-made drinks, high standards and good hospitality.” It’s simple really.
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