Hong Kong Heritage Restaurant Woos Young Fans With Late-Night World Cup Dim Sum

How Hong Kong’s old businesses are adapting to new times

Lin Heung Lau used late-night World Cup screenings over dim sum to test a different way of reaching customers, extending a historic restaurant brand beyond its familiar morning-tea image.

A heritage restaurant changes its hours

Late into the night, Hong Kong football fans in their twenties, thirties and forties sat inside Lin Heung Lau on Wellington Street to watch World Cup matches.

The setting was not a sports bar with pints, but a dim sum restaurant long associated with elderly morning-tea regulars.

During the World Cup in the summer, the historic restaurant extended its operating hours.

The move drew on the expertise of chairman Rocky Wong Hei-yan, a nightlife industry veteran.

Wong was behind once-bustling Lan Kwai Fong venues including Club No 9, Club Beijing and Magnum.

“On that occasion, we were not calculating money only,” he said.

“We were looking at brand-building and opening another channel through which we could find customers.”

Change without one formula

The case is part of a wider look at Hong Kong’s economic transformation and how established enterprises are trying to rejuvenate their brands.

In the second of a two-part series, Ambrose Li and Wynna Wong profile three established enterprises that have reinvented their businesses.

The series frames adaptation as something that does not follow a single formula.

According to the source, change can involve creating new experiences, rebuilding unglamorous systems and adopting AI.

For Lin Heung Lau, the reported example was a new customer experience built around football, late-night opening and dim sum.

The shift mattered because it placed a restaurant associated with elderly morning-tea regulars in front of customers watching World Cup matches late into the night.

Wong’s own explanation also showed the aim went beyond immediate takings and focused on brand-building and another customer channel.

Source: South China Morning Post