We speak to co-founder Agung Prabowo on his dedication to creating locally-sourced and upcycled food and drinks
Just seven months after opening to the public, Penicillin has already won its first accolade in the form of the Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award by Asia's 50 Best Bars 2021. The title, which was announced in anticipation of the 50 Best Bars reveal on May 6, is awarded based on an independent audit carried out by Food Made Good Global, 50 Best’s sustainability partner of the past eight years.
That Penicillin won the award is a well-deserved, if expected, outcome, given the paucity of wholly sustainable bars in the region currently. The bar comes from pedigree: opened in October 2020, it is the brainchild of Agung Prabowo and Roman Ghale—the co-founders of The Old Man, which won our Best Cocktails award and was placed at #1 on the Asia’s 50 Best Bars list in 2019—alongside their partners, Laura Prabowo and Katy Ghale, as well as Betty Ng of award-winning architectural design firm, Collective.
Penicillin champions a closed-loop process of production, wherein ingredients are locally sourced or foraged, spirits are bought in bulk via Ecospirits to reduce packaging, and what is traditionally treated as waste in the drinks-making is reintroduced into the cycle to be reused and upcycled into garnishes or bar food. The bar also strives for regional impact—as part of its 'One Penicillin, One Tree' initiative, the bar plants a native tree in the endangered Kalimantan rainforest area in Borneo, Indonesia for every order of a Penicillin cocktail.
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“We are pleased to congratulate Penicillin on winning this year’s Ketel One Sustainable Bar Award," remarks Mark Sansom, content editor for Asia's 50 Best Bars. "The team thoroughly deserve this recognition for their comprehensive and varied sustainability efforts – from supporting the local economy, instigating Hong Kong’s first closed-loop bar programme and getting involved in reforestation projects via their ‘One Penicillin, One Tree’ initiative. Even in its nascent stage, it is setting a sustainable example for the world to follow.”
Penicillin joins a roster of past winners that includes Bar Trigona in Kuala Lumpur (2019 and 2020), and Potato Head Beach Club in Bali (2018).
Ahead of the announcement of this award, we spoke to Prabowo on his reaction to winning the title so soon after their launch, the challenges that the bar industry faces on its road to sustainability, and the work that still has yet to be done in greening the craft of cocktail-making.