Having hosted Asia’s 50 Best Bars twice now, Macau is on track to significantly expand its bar community. Oli Dodd meets the man charged with making it happen
Macau is a resort city unlike any other. It’s built on the casinos and often referred to as the Las Vegas of China – although, with a gambling industry seven times the size, maybe it should be the other way round. This year, it’s expected to welcome 40 million visitors, mainly from mainland China; that’s about the same as international arrivals to the UK. And all to a place that is home to 700,000 people on 12 square miles of land, making it the most densely populated region on earth.
Naturally, with hotels that have endlessly deep pockets and plenty of people to entertain, F&B standards and competition are high, to the tune of a combined 31 Michelin stars.
And what about the bars? Well, here’s where the story changes. Since Asia’s 50 Best Bars launched in 2016, the city has only appeared in the top 50 list three times, with The Ritz-Carlton Bar & Lounge in 2018 and The St Regis Bar in 2024 and 2026.
Few have invested more heavily in changing that perception than Wynn Palace. Two-and-a-half years ago, the hotel resort brought in the Scottish Hebrides-born and Manchester-schooled industry veteran Mark Lloyd to grow its bar programme, particularly its flagship Wing Lei. Having launched several bars across the region, including The Upper Room in Shanghai and three J Boroski bars in Bangkok, Hong Kong and Shanghai, Lloyd was seen as a man to bring in the international community.
“We were brought here to build the bar scene,” Lloyd tells Drinks International. “They came and found me in China because I’m good at building communities. It’s a skill I’ve developed over the years. My career spans both sides. I have access to Chinese bars that nobody else really does because I have a whole career there. I also have a whole life in the UK where we have access to those bars.”
The end of July saw Asia’s 50 Best Bars’ ceremony return to the Wynn Palace Macau for the second consecutive year and with it the return of the region’s bar glitterati. Accompanying the ceremony, Lloyd organised a hospitality festival within the resort; this year it featured industry luminaries like Nico de Soto, Antonio Lai, Beckaly Franks and Dan Nevsky. The previous year, it even featured a guest shift with the inventor of the Tommy’s Margarita, Julio Bermejo, and the inventor of the Penicillin and Paper Plane, Sam Ross.
High bar
With each, the goal was to make Macau and the Wynn Palace impossible to ignore.
“50 Bests are done by tourism boards; they’re done by towns and cities; we did it all in a single building,” Lloyd says.
“It’s been hard, probably the biggest thing I’ve ever done. We don’t have a city; we have 11 people working 20-hour days, cutting ice, chopping lemons, getting it done. But now, when it goes to Singapore or Bangkok or wherever it ends up next year, we want to set the bar where it’s unachievably high.
“50 Best has given us a spotlight, and even after the first year, more people wanted to come and see what this place is. Everyone knows us as the bar in Macau now; bartenders that don’t even know me will ask if I’m the Macau guy. The recognition is already there, and the hotel has invested in pushing us on.
Despite having the ear of the industry, Macau has some way to go before it becomes the next burgeoning bar superpower like Bangkok or Shanghai. Unlike Vegas, where drinking goes hand-in-hand with gambling, many Chinese gamblers prefer to view gambling as a serious activity that requires a clear head. In fact, drinks are rarely served on the gaming floors. With that there’s less incentive for many hotels to invest in areas that don’t align with their primary function.
“I think if more properties invested the same way that we have, we’d have a chance. Us hosting 50 Best is us driving Macau forward, and beyond that, we’ve been bringing international bartenders, not just for 50 Best.
“It’s not necessarily about bringing the number one bar in the world; it’s about bringing the right people who have the right messages that we want to convey to the community we have here. We’re driving that, and hopefully others get behind it.”
Eventually, the challenge will be to emerge from the shadow of its noisy neighbour. Macau lies just across the Pearl River Estuary from Hong Kong, a city that boasts perhaps the continent’s most dynamic bar scene, but Lloyd explains that the cities’ differences could be the region’s strength.
“After this year, hopefully we’re a market now; it’s not just Hong Kong and then Macau over there, more like Hong Kong and Macau.
“We’re hotel-focused in Macau; there are no standalones. Hong Kong is the opposite. Hotel bars used to be great. If you go back and look at early versions of the 50 Best list, it’s the hotel bars that dominated. Look at classics; all of them were invented in hotels.
“So, there is a market, and in Macau we have an opportunity to bring that back because we do have the funding, we do have the infrastructure, and we have places like Wing Lei that are beautiful. Hong Kong will never be beaten for the independent bars, but if Macau focuses on making great hotel bars, it could become the London of the region.”
