According to the SCMP, roughly 70 percent of restaurants in Hong Kong faced closure in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hong Kong’s restless demonstrations, followed by the economic impact of the pandemic, has made the idea of opening a restaurant in Hong Kong , and most of the world, unthinkable. Ryan Nightingale’s Shady Acres, however, opened during the pandemic. The small restaurant-bar tucked behind a narrow alleyway on Hong Kong’s Peel Street, now unmissable due to the crowd that gathers there weekly, has become an unlikely success story.

(Photo credit: World Best Bars)
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Though it only opened in 2019, you wouldn’t be wrong to call Shady Acres an establishment. Weathered from floor to ceiling, the place lends a warm, rugged atmosphere, livened up by the friendly staff that make you feel at home, the kind of home where people brush shoulders and enjoy unpretentious cocktails made by honest bartenders who are probably happy to get as boozed as you. It can be pretty difficult to find space inside, though. To meet the overwhelming demand, service now covers the outside pavement. Business has been booming, so much so that Nightingale decided to open up another restaurant that sits just two blocks away... because... Why the hell not? Honky Tonk’s Tavern, exuding the same snug, welcoming feel as Shady Acres, has somehow also become a natural stomping ground for many.

If you asked anyone two years ago about opening a venue during the pandemic, the person might’ve thought there was something wrong with you. To say that Nightingale “made it work” would be an understatement. So what’s the secret to his success? You might be poised to know that the decision to open Shady Acres wasn’t random and his success wasn’t mere luck either. The man knew what he was doing.

Speaking with Nightingale, we discovered that prior to opening Shady Acres, he worked for one of the top Michelin star restaurants in London and quickly rose through the ranks as a world-class bartender, working alongside Jason Atherton, once known as Gordon Ramsay’s right-hand man. So we couldn’t help but ask Nightingale about the secret to his success and his views on the bar and restaurant world. He also gave some solid advice for young people reading this article today.

“There was some intense yelling and all that kitchen bravado there. That kind of shocked me and then eventually it didn't.”

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(Photo credit: Anna Kucera)

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Can you describe your childhood and where you grew up?

My dad was a firefighter for the Canadian air force, so I grew up moving around a lot in Canada. About every three or four years, we moved to different provinces. I spent the first 15 years of my life doing that, which helped me develop the character of being able to go to a new town and make friends easily. There was the unfortunate side of having to say goodbye to a lot of people and things like that, but I think the way I look at it now is that it allowed me to break down any barriers of being shy. It allowed me to build that outgoing personality that I think is necessary in my kind of job.

I also had a very happy, active outdoor Canadian lifestyle on the east coast — Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, even Prince Edward Island. The east coast is definitely a beautiful and boring place, especially for someone who gets a little itchy after university and wants to go out and explore. I had family from the U.K., so I moved over to London just after university. I was there for two years before coming to Hong Kong.‍

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Why did you move to Hong Kong?‍

I was working for a big restaurant group on and off called Social Group by Jason Atherton. He used to be Gordon Ramsay's right-hand man. Around 2011 was when I started working with him, he opened a spot and within two years he started expanding both in London and globally. He was in Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai. He asked me to come out to Hong Kong in 2014 to run a bar called the Back Bar, which was on Ship Street behind Hammond Sherry, which was a Spanish restaurant. "Free adventure," I thought. I'd never been to Asia before. So why not?
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‍Working with someone like that must've been quite the experience.

He's quite an intense person to be honest. It was his dream to expand and build up that company. I think he obviously saw how Gordon Ramsay did things, and he was never going to be a TV chef, but he wanted to be more hands-on. I think when it was a bit of a smaller thing, he was even more hands-on. I worked in his first restaurant in London called Pollen Street Social. He was in the kitchen every other day while still expanding. It was good but it came with all the trappings of these kinds of endeavors as well. There was some intense yelling and all that kitchen bravado there. That kind of shocked me and then eventually it didn't, but it also shaped how that was kind of going out of style.

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(Photo credit: Lifestyle Asia HK)

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Was that roughness totally unexpected when you stepped into the kitchen in London?

I think it was just extreme. Working for a Michelin star in London and working for good places in East Coast Canada. I've definitely seen the passion, the extremes of the kitchen back in Canada, but seeing it at that kind of level in London was a shock. It was my first day, which was like a trial shift. It's the first time I'm going into the kitchen and I'm supposed to go collect all the teapots at lunch from this restaurant with a big bar. At the end of the lunch shift, right before I accepted the job, I was like, “let’s just go to the dishwasher and collect the teapots.” I go in... Lost. Then someone's like, "what the f**k are you doing back here?" That was the first time getting called c*nt to my face. I was just trying to do my job, which I wasn’t even getting paid for yet.

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“There's still a lot of pubs and everyone's a little bit Irish and wants to be.”

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How did your experience in your younger years lead you into this industry?

When I was in university, I think I hung around in the bar too much rather than studied. My first year of undergrad, I was playing pool at a bar. Someone didn't show up one day and I ended up bussing one of the tables and working my first job there. Checking IDs of all my friends and nothing on the tables. I did that for like the first year until they needed a bartender and worked at the bar. First I had Monday shifts. Then, I had my Tuesday nights, which was just me behind the bar, nice and quiet. When I finished school, I went to work at a real bar and that was really hard to do. I pulled pipes, made a couple of gin and tonics, but I didn't work in a real, for-profit kind of bar setting. I ended up working in the kitchen for a little while, just, whatever. I didn't want to go back home and move in with my mom again. So whatever I could do, I would do it. I mean, this is all around my early twenties, just over a decade ago.

“I initially wanted to call the band Shady Lane from this song by this band called Pavement. That song was all about finding a little slice of paradise for themselves.”

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When did you decide to open up Shady Acres? Was it always on your mind or did it just come to you one day?

I remember right before I moved here, when I was around 25, I was thinking about whether I wanted to stick with bartending as a career path or if I wanted to go back to school. I said to myself, "okay, if I'm going to do this as a career, I'm doing it as my own boss." I told myself that if I don't have a place by the time I'm 30, maybe I'll go back to school. So that was kind of on my mind. When I moved here, I was like 26. I was still kind of thinking about it, but it wasn't until I was around 28 where one of my friends and now my business partner, Mike, and I figured there wasn't quite a bar for us yet here in Hong Kong, so we decided to combine forces. His background is in wine and he was a sommelier in Australia for three years before coming here — very well worded, great taste in wine and opinionated. We managed to sign the lease two months before I turned 31, so I just got right in there for my goal, which was kind of funny. We've been open for two years, but we've probably been working on Shady Acres two years before that. Six months of it was just building the place before we opened.

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(Photo credit: Shady Acres)

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What's the idea behind the name Shady Acres?

In university, I had a band called Shady Acres where we played stoner rock music. I initially wanted to call the band Shady Lane, taken from this song by a band called Pavement. That song was all about finding a little slice of paradise for yourself. That's kind of the attitude that went into the band name. I would try and set up weird lighting and props every time we did a show. I told Mike the last time I named something was "Shady Acres" because my bandmates and I saw that in a movie funny enough. 

They didn't like my Shady Lane name, but they saw that and it turns out that name Shady Acres is a little easter egg in movies produced by this director Tom Shadyac. So this is all a very roundabout backstory of art and Shady Acres, but I just think it's something that is connected to this idea that I had ages ago. I guess I'm such a completist that even though my band didn't really take off, I'd try it again.

“Obviously, attitude towards work and skill is important, but we're always thinking more about who we want to work with.”

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Shady Acres feels very much like home for some reason.

I think we're very personality-driven in who we hire. Obviously, attitude towards work and skill is important, but we're thinking more about who we want to work with. If you make it feel home-y, people will come and work for you because of that reason. 

That's also been my favorite compliment that I get. Canadians go in there and say it feels like somewhere that's from home. Australians and British people say the same thing. So I think we've struck chord at something universal there. It feels lived in and it feels personality driven rather than anything else. I think having that personality and the skill that we're getting out of the kitchen and the bar team, the wine knowledge, all of these things help complete the package and makes it not just superficial.

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(Photo credit: World Best Bars)

Has Shady Acres always been full?

I mean, we kind of opened at a funny time in Hong Kong. A month before the protest kicked off two years ago, people were already getting kicked out of LKF because a lot of bars were raising the rent. The protests were going on and our clientele was still very expat-focused. They were staying home and not going out as much. There were days where you could go to LKF and get a big whiff of tear gas. So people were staying around the Soho area a lot more — people coming up from Sheung Wan and coming to Soho, rather than spreading out to the traditional kind of night spot.

So it was still there, but it was still very restaurant-y. I think we kind of opened in a blip where it was beneficial for the neighborhood that we were in. Had we opened down closer to central MTR, since a lot of those protests happened along the waterfront, it would have been a different story. Some people see that Peel street wasn't a thing before, and then suddenly it became one. There was always a little vibe on Peel Street. That's why we picked that location.

I always thought of Peel Street as a great little spot, but we never imagined the overflow of people standing outside like we had in those first two summers, where it was like a hundred people on the street. I think it kind of came to fruition through a force outside of us. Then it just spread through word-of-mouth. We were opening a tiny 35-seat wine and cocktail bar. That was our initial intention. We were surprised. I think that's why we were able to jump at the opportunity to open Honky Tonks Tavern just a year and a half later.

“Experience goes a long way. I would say gain a bit of experience and get a bit of money in your pocket.”

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What's one piece of advice you would give to younger creatives trying to find success?

I would say try on a lot of different hats. If you're in any field, try to work from the perspectives of every part of that job from the bottom up. That's where my confidence has come from — working in bars and restaurants is knowing how to do every job and to really understand it. I think you gain much more appreciation for the whole system. I've only ever done it in restaurants, but I imagine that's the most universal thing I can give advice for. If you want to be the big boss, I think you have to pay the cost and do a little bit of everything. You'll actually have some real life experience to back up your opinions about how you want things done. So I would say get your hands dirty.

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In case you missed it, check out our previous interview with Hong Kong-based artist Frog King.