Guangzhou recently lost an iconic part of its F&B heritage: Hill Bar. Located outside the Baiyun Hotel near exit B of Metro Line 5’s Taojin Station, Hill Bar poured pints in the same spot for roughly 20 years.
When we visited the bar several days ago, the establishment was locked up tight and it has since been confirmed by a number of local F&B insiders that Hill Bar has indeed closed its doors.
Image via Dianping
Talk to any longtime Guangzhou expat and they’ll tell you that the area around the Baiyun Hotel extending down Jianshe Liu Malu was Guangzhou’s original party place and the closure of Hill Bar marks the end of an era.
“[It was] the best bar location in Guangzhou,” said one nearby F&B purveyor, referencing Hill Bar’s prime, hilltop real estate. “Any bar guy will tell you that.”
While the closure of Hill Bar is undoubtedly a sad day for all of us good-time-lovin’ folks, it’s not the first bar to close on the section of Huanshi Dong Lu that buttresses the Baiyun and Garden hotels. Across the road from the now-defunct Hill Bar, in the building now occupied by Mado, the famous (or infamous, depending who you talk to) Elephant & Castle was a popular boozing and football-watching location until its closure in 2012.
Now, arguably the only decent spot to grab a drink on the north side of Huanshi Dong Lu is Mango Bar.
While we’re sure our readers will have no shortage of their own special memories at Hill Bar, we want to finish this story off by sharing one of our own: the time Hill Bar hosted the first-ever In-N-Out Burger pop-up restaurant in Guangzhou.
Image by Matt Bossons/That’s
Admittedly, we aren’t turning the clocks back too far on this one, as the fast food pop-up occurred back in October of last year, but it was a really memorable event for lovers of burgers, fast food goodness and tacky T-shirts.
The pop-up kitchen was managed by three chefs visiting from the United States and all the sauces used in the food were imported. The man running the operation, American Eric Billings, told us at the time that the beef for the patties was sourced locally, but selected for quality, and that all veggies used in the burgers were washed and chopped on the morning of the event.
Billings, In-N-Out’s manager of special foreign events, said that the event was intended to introduce Guangzhouers to the chain’s sinfully-good eats.
Image by Matt Bossons/That’s
Despite the event being an extremely well-kept secret, a crowd of In-N-Out-lovin’ expats and curious locals turned up to stuff exquisitely prepared double cheeseburgers into their mouths.
It was a hell of a time, and we’re sad that Hill Bar won’t be hosting another such pop-up event in the future. Although, we should note that if rumors are correct, it sounds like a major American fast food chain (cough-KFC-cough) may be taking over the space in the coming months.
Rest easy, Hill Bar, we’ll miss you.
UPDATE (March 19, 2019 at 7pm CST): This story has been updated to clarify that Hill Bar was open for roughly 20 years.
[Cover image @katherine_y_u/Instagram]
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