Side B, the new cocktail menu from Dead Poets in Hong Kong, launches on November 1 with twelve drinks dedicated to twelve musicians who changed music, changed lives, and left too soon. The Central neighborhood bar builds every menu around dead artists, and this release returns to its original musical theme from a different angle.
Instead of fame, Side B looks at what happened behind the stage: what these artists ate, drank, and loved when they didn’t have to sing. Not gods. Ordinary people, gifted and imperfect.
“Millions of stars burn out every second. We want to remember every one of them,” says Mike Fedotovsky of Dead Poets. “The cocktails are memory, not sadness.”
The Concept Behind Side B
Dead Poets builds each menu around artists who left us too soon, and its first menu, released in 2023, was dedicated to music. Side B returns to that territory, trading the spotlight for the dressing room. Each of the twelve cocktails is tied to a specific artist and a specific detail of their offstage life, a snack habit, a corner shop, a 5am ritual, rather than a chart position.
Alongside the twelve new serves, the menu carries eight bestsellers from previous Dead Poets menus under a section called The Greatest Hits, so returning regulars don’t lose their house pours in the changeover.
A Mural for Chester Bennington
Dead Poets has unveiled a newly commissioned graffiti wall mural of Chester Bennington just outside the venue, a street-level tribute that extends the menu’s thesis onto Aberdeen Street itself.
Bennington gets a drink too. Meteora builds on chile-infused Altos tequila with a yuzu-thyme cordial, burnt grapefruit, agave, and Three Cents grapefruit soda, finished with a Cheetos and Tajín rim. The spec is a direct reference to life on tour, where, the bar says, Bennington lived on spicy snacks and Red Bull.
Offstage Lives, in the Glass
The storytelling runs through every build on the list. The Ordinary Man, for Ozzy Osbourne, combines coffee-infused Torres 10 brandy, peach, Disaronno amaretto, and lemon. At 5am, Ozzy would brew double-strength coffee and sniff cognac, ordinary things for an ordinary man who became the Prince of Darkness.
Frick Park Market remembers Mac Miller with mushroom-infused Ketel One vodka, tomato, chipotle, sherry vinegar, lemon, and cherry tomatoes. The drink is named after the corner shop in his Pittsburgh neighborhood and nods to his producer alter ego, Larry Fisherman.
The Bitter Life, for Brad Arnold of 3 Doors Down, mixes whiskey, Campari, raspberry, honey, lemon, and ginger beer, a wink at the album The Better Life.
Proud Mary honors Tina Turner with watermelon-lemongrass Roku gin, a lime-basil-mandarin cordial, and dry vermouth. Turner left in the middle of the night with 36 cents in her pocket and took the top of the charts back; the bar describes the drink as tart, fresh, and direct.
The rest of the menu remembers Dolores O’Riordan, David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Taylor Hawkins, Adam Yauch (MCA), Brian Wilson, and Joe Strummer.
Inside Dead Poets
Dead Poets sits at 41-49 Aberdeen Street in Central and pays tribute to dead artists of every kind: musicians, painters, writers, and directors. The bar describes its interior as a morgue, stainless steel, surgical lighting, graffiti, black leather chairs, mirrors, and artifacts, a morgue that somehow also has espresso. Drinks are by Fedotovsky and Nikita Matveev of The Old Man, and the bar has been named on the 50 Best Discovery list 2026, SCMP’s 100 Top Tables 2026, and Tatler’s Best Bars 2026.
The room runs on its own rhythm: coffee in the morning, cocktails whenever, and haircuts by the Sauce team if you need one, or even if you don’t. Happy hour runs daily from 3pm to 8pm, with bestsellers and mixed drinks at HK$80.
There is more on the calendar, too. Dead Poets turns three on December 4 and 5, with details to follow.
Where to Try Side B
Side B launches November 1 at Dead Poets, 41-49 Aberdeen Street, Central, Hong Kong. The bar is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am to 1am and Sunday through Monday from 4pm to 1am; follow @deadpoetshk for menu drops and anniversary news. For a bar built on the premise that death is final but everything you made is not, Side B is less a menu change than a mission statement set to music.
