Hullett House makes us question Hong Kong's heritage

It’s 2009. The Century of China is upon us. All of Asia is awakening to a new identity. Blah, blah, blah.

So is Charlie Chan-style, wonders-of-the-inscrutable-Orient interior design still relevant? Or even fashionable? Apparently, David Yeo thinks it is.

Yeo, creator of the Aqua restaurant group, unveiled his latest venture on Tuesday night: heritage boutique hotel Hullett House.

Opinions at the hotel opening was decidedly mixed. Yeo's bars and restaurants are known for their high glamour and statement features -- like the floor-to-ceiling panorama of the Hong Kong skyline at the in-crowd party HQ, Aqua Spirit Bar -- and we’ve come to expect a contemporary aesthetic from his establishments. But he’s outdone himself in kitsch, OTT design with the "Old Hong Kong" theme at the Hullett House, which occupies the upper section of Heritage 1881, the historic former headquarters of the marine police.

The boutique hotel's bar, The Parlour, is also called Three Dragons, for the three types of gilded dragons that serve as its emblems. Other visual reminders of the delights of old Cathay include gaudy Chinese lanterns and a Chinese pavilion-style canopy over the bar. One presumes the giant golden gong is still being measured for installation.

The Hullett House’s restaurants exude a more colonial feel. Stables Grill is a casual pizza and pasta joint converted from the estate’s original stables and the beautifully preserved wooden stable doors open up onto an expansive terrace.

However, it’s the 13 guest rooms that people were really talking about. Each room has it's own color-scheme: the black room is rigged out with black padded walls and black carpeting, like a soundproof adult playground; the white room is not an insane asylum but a bridal suite and with the exception of the large, black plasma TV, every last inch of the room is off-white.

No matter what the public verdict on the design is -- some will love it and some will recoil from the garish stereotypes -- Hullett House will succeed or fail on the quality of its food and staff service.

And location. Situated along the TST harborfront, the new hotel appears to be in perfect position to project, if nothing else, the rich Chinese heritage that captures the imaginations of both tourists and locals who are looking for a certain inscrutable Hong Kong style.

Hullett House