No Restrictions: Agung and Laura Prabowo on the Inspiration Behind Lockdown

A year after Covid, Agung and Laura Probowo celebrate the end of the pandemic with their latest venture, Lockdown. 

If you’ve walked by the corner of Hollywood Road and Cochrane Street recently, you might have noticed an odd window display just underneath the Central-Mid-Levels escalator. A pristine white toilet bowl sits next to a battered wooden ladder, both of which lean against a mirrored wall. To the left of this strange setup is a dark entrance, with a door displaying the word “Lockdown,” crossed out with a line through it. As inconspicuous as its external design might be, what this outer shell holds within is anything but.

Indeed, Lockdown is Agung and Laura Prabowo’s latest venture, a project conceived during the height of the pandemic by the power couple behind some of Hong Kong’s most successful cocktail bars, including The Old Man, Dead& and Penicillin. The bar, as they explain to me, isn’t just a nod to the tough times we’ve been through in the past few years, but a celebration of its ending and a welcome to better days ahead. 

“The name is quite controversial, we know, and many people would rather forget about the lockdown,” Agung says. “Some people don’t like it, because it only reminds them of the painful experiences, and in some way it does for all of us, but what Laura and I want to express is that despite the pandemic and those restrictions, we’re still standing strong.”

For bar owners and mixologists like the duo, the past few years were similar to another period in History. “I see a lot of parallels between the lockdown for us in the industry and the Prohibition Era in the United States,” Agung explains. “It was a rough time for them too, but to this day we still talk about that period and all the amazing cocktails that were created during it because of all the limitations they had.”

Naturally, the menu is largely inspired by the Prohibition Era. Unlike Penicillin, which is better known for its sustainability-driven experimental cocktails, Lockdown sets its focus on resurrecting what Agung calls “forgotten classics”, “remastered” through the couple’s signature technical flair.

“The concept we have for the cocktails here is very different from our other bars,” he tells me. “We chose to focus on drinks that were developed during the Prohibition Era at different speakeasys, not only because that period of time mirrors the pandemic for us, but also because most of our regular guests don’t know much about them, and
as bartenders who’ve learned about the History of these cocktails, we wanted to shine a light on them once again.”

“It’s not as complicated as what we do at Penicillin, but we still use very technical processes to create the drinks at Lockdown,” Laura adds, “because it’s part of our DNA to make experimental cocktails. People know that, and it’s what they expect from us. At the same time, we want to respect the heritage of these classic cocktails, so we needed to find the right balance.”

Some of the highlights from the Prabowos’ mission to find this perfect balance include Stone Fence, a concoction featuring buttered miso bourbon, Pommeau, salted maple syrup, clarified lemon juice, penicillin cider and sliced cucumber, as well as Left Bank, an homage to the neighbourhood of the same name that brings together Absinthe, crème de menthe green, port LBV, elderflower St Germaine, clarified lemon juice, fennel pollen vodka and Boston bitter.

Combined with a dazzling art-deco-inspired interior that’s designed to contrast strikingly from the relatively mundane exterior and a warm group of staff more welcoming than any other bar we’ve visited lately, everything Lockdown’s about – whether or not you’re a fan of the name – makes evident the tenacity and persevering nature of our city’s dynamic bar scene. 

“We learned a lot from the pandemic,” Agung says. “We saw so many things happening in Hong Kong, but it made us stronger. We want people to think of the past two years in the same way, which is why our logo shows the word ‘Lockdown’ crossed out with a line: we’ve moved past it now, and we’re back better than ever before.”