Tucked into the easternmost edge of Midnight Oil is Hao Peng You, the space’s newest food and drink experience, amongst an already-existing array of differing escapades.
You have the former Roadkill space that is now The Creature of the Black Lagoon speakeasy on the west side. There’s Midnight Oil in the middle with its array of cocktails, Chinese-American fare, and dim sum. (Don’t skip the shrimp fried rice or beef noodles.) There’s a Terrible Burger pop-up on Tuesdays.
And now, with Hao Peng You, owner Leonard Chan, and bar manager Sherwood Souzankari have introduced the space’s most thematic interior and explorative (though not really abstruse) cocktail menu. For Leonard specifically, the space holds a deeply personal connection that allows patrons to understand why “hand laundry” is attached to the space’s name.
The idea behind Hao Peng You inside Midnight Oil.
Hao Peng You translates into “good friends” from Mandarin. (“For which we hope we all become,” Leonard said, laughing.)
For Sherwood, from a cocktail-making angle, he largely eschewed the esoteric in favor of the accessible. However, I would be remiss not to note that there are some hyper-savory leanings, such as a sriracha-like concoction that combines Bird’s eye chili and onion-infused Tito’s vodka with savory vermouth blanc. And a sesame-centric old-fashioned that homes in on the bitter side of the seed. The rest? Reachable fare—even with a quite nice peanut drink using the divisive Chinese spirit that is baijiu.
The rest of the space? An esteemed regard to the array of Chinese hand laundry spaces that popped up across the country following the struggles of Chinese immigrants who faced immense discrimination and outright hatred once they entered the United States. And, of course, a subtle ode to their, shall we say, unlicensed entrepreneurship in the back of the laundry house.
“Once you enter, we designed a space—with a ton of input and help, even construction, from Sherwood— that was inspired by hidden illicit gambling and opium dens that were often found hidden in the backs of laundries,” Leonard said. “We were able to score an antique 1800s Chinese marital bed from a good friend over at The Villa Riviera—something I was scouring for a long time to find. A long time. Once these beds fell out of fashion, many were repurposed in opium dens, which brings us full circle to Midnight Oil, which was used as a slang term for Opium in the 1800s.”
Why the historical reference to laundry is such an important cog for Hao Peng You.
The history of hate and discrimination runs vast within the United States—and Chinese immigrants were no exception to the wrath of the bigoted American populace.
Chinese immigrants began arriving in San Francisco in large numbers during the Gold Rush of 1849, and later as railroad laborers in the 1860s. Once the railroads were completed, many were left without work and turned to the city for opportunity. Yet, even there, anti-Chinese hostility escalated quickly with their arrival. Local and state governments passed restrictive measures—from San Francisco’s 1870 “Cubic Air Ordinance,” which was selectively enforced against Chinese tenement residents, to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first U.S. law to ban immigration by nationality. These laws and attitudes effectively barred Chinese workers from most trades and industries.
As noted in her seminal work, “The Making of Asian America: A History,” author Erika Lee notes that hand laundries became one of the few viable paths for survival. The barrier to entry was low: opening a laundry required little more than soap, water, an iron, and long hours of labor. Just as importantly, running a laundry did not demand fluency in English or professional connections that Chinese immigrants were denied. By 1880, San Francisco counted more than 3,000 Chinese laundries, making them a defining feature of the city’s urban economy.
From San Francisco, the model spread across the country, appearing in towns both large and small. What began as an act of survival in the face of systemic exclusion became a cornerstone of the Chinese American immigrant story—evidence of resilience, adaptation, and economic ingenuity in the margins of opportunity.
A look at the inaugural menu for Hao Peng You at Midnight Oil.
Perilla Highball: Mahina rum | mint + perilla syrup | Supasawa | soda
Salty Plums: Yebiga plum brandy | Supasawa | peach syrup | peach bitters | clarified soy sauce
Hua Sheng: Ming River baijiu | Skrewball peanut butter whiskey | peanut
Chinese Vacation: Amante aperitif | pineapple juice | mandarin juice
Clarified Lychee Negroni: Freeland navy strength gin | Lillet Blanc | white bitter | clarified lychee
BANG BANG!: Bird’s eye chili + onion-infused Tito’s vodka | savory vermouth blanc | chili oil garnish
Sesame Dreams: Sesame oil-washed Kavalan whisky | Turkey 101 | spiced bitters
Hao Peng You Hand Laundry is located inside Midnight OIl at 255 Long Beach Blvd.
