Upstairs cafés in Hong Kong



Upstairs cafés are cafés in Hong Kong that are located above street level. They became popular in the early 2000s and are mainly located in the upper floors of old commercial and mixed residential/commercial buildings in districts such as Mong Kok, Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay. Hong Kong’s dining guide websites such as OpenRice have a dedicated classification for these types of catering outlets.

Most of them have themed decorations such as pets, teddy bears, manga, or classrooms. Apart from food and drinks, many upstairs cafés in Hong Kong also provide free entertainment for customers such as Jenga, card games, chess sets and board games. Customers of upstairs cafés sometimes reserve the entire outlet for parties and gatherings due to the lower price point compared to restaurants at street level. Upstairs cafés are typically small businesses and are usually unadvertised and located in unmarked buildings in Hong Kong. As they are far from the dining outlets on the streets which have high visibility, it can be difficult for people to know of their the existence. People in Hong Kong usually learn about upstairs cafés from their friends, magazine articles, catering guide websites, or online blogs and forums.

Reasons for existence
Due to Hong Kong's land shortage, retail rents in Hong Kong are constantly rising. According to property consultant CB Richard Ellis (CBRE), Hong Kong placed second with an average rent of US$1,695 per square foot per year in the report on global retail rents in the third quarter of 2011. Entrepreneurs of upstairs cafés choose the upstairs locations to avoid the high rents charged for ground-floor spaces.

As Hong Kong is a densely populated city, there are limited affordable public spaces for its people to gather for leisure. Upstairs cafés provide a cozy environment for people to gather with their friends without any time limit while maintaining affordability.

Upstairs cafés often have unique marketing strategies to compete with chain competitors in Hong Kong such as Starbucks and Pacific Coffee Company. Many upstairs cafes have their own themes to make themselves stand out from the others.

Relation to Hong Kong youth culture
Upstairs cafés are one of the common leisure spots for youngsters in Hong Kong. Their popularity comes from the uniqueness of different cafés. They usually have specific thematic concepts, ranging from providing board games to providing book loaning services to their customers. The wide variety of upstairs cafés have attracted many teenagers.

According to Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, teenagers are in search of identity and looking to stand out from others. One way would be visiting these uncommon places. Moreover, these upstairs cafés also provide business opportunities for young entrepreneurs. Upstairs cafes can be a platform for youngsters to showcase their creativity and talents as they compete by using different strategies to draw attention from customers. "Lazy" is one of the traits that media often uses when describing Hong Kong post 90s, regarding people born after the year of 1990. One of the claimed reasons is that they enjoy doing nothing. The popping up of more cafés in Hong Kong is partially related to this phenomenon, as young people in Hong Kong would seemingly rather spend hours in these upstairs cafés chatting with friends, rather than go for a hike on a sunny day. Besides, youngsters in Hong Kong are often living in packed houses, due to the overloaded population and lack of housing in Hong Kong. So these upstairs cafés also provide a common area for friend gatherings since crowded houses in Hong Kong may not be suitable for group of friends to play together.

Unlicensed upstairs cafés
There are a lot of upstairs cafes that are unlicensed. According to the " Food Business Regulation", unlicensed operation of a restaurant is subjected to a maximum fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for six months. However, since most of the upstairs café are located in the upstairs, which might locate in some hidden places, it is difficult for the government to find out.

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department only has 200 inspectors who are responsible for inspecting the restaurants. Without receiving any complaints, it is difficult to uncover unlicensed cafés located in different buildings and different district. Without licenses, a lot of safety problems may arise. For instance, food hygiene problems, lacking of fire escape exits, problems of building structure etc. In addition, the quality of food and the hygiene of the environment may not be guaranteed. One of the examples is that some of the unlicensed cafés will allow people to smoke inside the café, which pollute the air quality and violate the law. These cafés may have their own "spy" to check whether there are any inspectors. Therefore, once when one was reported to the Tobacco Control Office, the inspectors could not find anyone who violated the law. These problems often arise in the unlicensed upstairs café in Hong Kong, which affect people’s health and safety.