For the first time, a mainland Chinese bar has taken top spot at the Asia’s 50 Best Bars awards.Guangzhou’s Hope & Sesame was the big winner at the 11th edition of the awards, held at the Wynn Palace resort in Macau on July 28, ending the two-year reign of Hong Kong’s Bar Leone. It also scooped the Best Bar in Mainland China Award.Its co-founder, Hongkonger Andrew Ho, won the Bartenders’ Bartender Award last year.“We started with four people, now we’re [a team of] over 100,” said Ho, who opened a Shenzhen branch of Hope & Sesame in 2022, as he accepted the award on stage with his team, who were visibly emotional.Hope & Sesame’s win coincides with the bar’s 10th year of operation and, when Ho was later asked how he felt, he quipped: “I think the only question is, why not earlier?”Ho added that he and his team “have been working very hard” as they are currently serving the 17th iteration of their menu.Hong Kong native Andrew Ho started as a hospitality professional and bartender before co-founding Hope & Sesame in Guangzhou in 2016 and Shenzhen in 2022. Photo: Hope & Sesame