IN STYLE! –
March 8, 2024 – The bar’s lush interior details are exquisitely rendered and yet the old bones remain, a tribute to the women behind Stay: Summer Phoenix and Stacey Mann, two single moms. Among the bar menu’s notable offerings are 12 drinks named after signs of the Chinese zodiac. Some are zero-proof mocktails …
They struck lightning in the former Hong Kong Café, built in 1939 by Chinatown co-founder Y.C. Hong as Joy Yuen Low and more recently as Realm. The venue, in the heart of Chinatown, has a storied history. During the ’90s, Hong Kong Café was home to burgeoning underground EDM and house music clubs like Family Groove, which helped birth the ballroom scene in Los Angeles. Through the years, bands including the Go-Go’s, Wall of Voodoo and the Alice Bag Band played there, and Penelope Spheeris filmed her seminal documentary The Decline of Western Civilization on-site.
Mann believes that to land such an iconic location was the universe knocking. She grew up working in her family’s Greenwich Village jazz bar, Sweet Basil, and became an art director for feature films.
