Voices on China – Camden Hauge, Restauranteur and Founder, China Wine Club

Young China Watchers (YCW): Tell me about your history with China. How did you become interested, how did you end up there, and what’s your story been.

Camden Hauge (CH): I was originally sent for a “3-6 month” stint by my job back in 2012. I had been working for Saatchi & Saatchi in London as a brand strategist and was interested to try something new and this opportunity came up! I had thought, “when else would I live in China?” so I packed my bags and hopped over to Shanghai.

I quickly fell in love with the dynamism of the city and the group of people who called it home. I knew I wanted to stay and saw a window to do something I had been dreaming of since I was a child – opening my own restaurant. This was post-2010 expo Shanghai and there was a lot of curiosity about international concepts but few who were serving the need — in this, I found an opportunity to start something new without lots of experience, and with a very excited, interested audience. Before launching into the restaurant proper, I started a monthly Supperclub to gain experience, meet the chef community, and build a base of supporters – it was an invaluable start, allowing me to learn along the path of planning towards the eventual restaurant. Fast forward to 2020/2021, I had grown the single small all-day dining spot into a hospitality group comprising 9 venues with various concepts and the Supperclub had grown into a full-scale experience agency. It’s been an amazing ride.

YCW: How did you switch from advertising strategy to F&B? What made you want to make the switch? What similarities did you find between those two worlds?

CH: I truly fell into advertising but will always be grateful for my advertising experience because it taught me to see the world through impact of “brands,” how to craft narrative, and how to meet people where they are — all things that I’ve taken forward into restaurants, events, and now wine.

But my heart has always been in food. When I was little, I would read Gourmet magazine instead of books before sleep and always dreamt of being a chef or having my own place. The opportunity to open a venue of my own was something I leapt at, and make every effort to bring to life.

YCW: What did you find when you first got started? What were the pleasant and unpleasant surprises?

CH: I wanted to do everything myself to gain experience and so the beginning was truly challenging. People recognize hospitality as a ‘difficult’ career, but the true breadth and depth of work when you’re the owner-operator is I think, even now, underreported. Being a business owner is hard, being financially responsible for a small-scale operation is hard, managing people is hard, building and growing a brand is hard, the physical element is hard — the combination, all when you have never done it before and are trying to learn…it’s a lot.

In many ways, I was lucky walking into it with naïveté because the fantasy of having a little spot is so different than the reality. But, honestly, the gratification from seeing customers start coming into and space, making it their own, celebrating life moments with you; growing a team and giving them the tools they need; creating community…it’s all worth the immense amount of work.

YCW: You started with restaurants but then moved to wine with Crush, and Lucky Mart is primarily a bar. What is the difference between the F and the B that you’ve found? What possibilities does beverage hold for storytelling, creating human connection, or sensory experience that are harder to achieve with food?

CH: Beverage is interesting because in a way it feels more limiting, but it actually is a huge platform for storytelling. For instance, so many elements go into a dish and so many people work on it that sometimes it becomes more about the dish itself and the diners’ perception of the dish but for things like wine, the location of origin, the year’s conditions, the decisions that go into the farming of the fruit even before the maceration, fermentation, and aging… there’s just such a vast narrative and so many ways to understand one glass of juice.

YCW: You now have started China Wine Club. What is it?

CH: China Wine Club started as monthly parties celebrating Chinese wine and its makers in Shanghai in 2024; as of this spring, I also started bringing the wines to America, starting here in New York. I work with an import and distribution partner to get them into restaurants, bars, and shops, while also doing events like parties or masterclasses to share more information about these amazing wines.

YCW: What do Americans know about Chinese wine?

CH: The less they know, the more exciting for me! It’s harder to change someone’s mind than telling them something for the first time. So I am thrilled when people tell me they didn’t know China made wine or haven’t tried it before.

YCW: And what do you know about it that you want to share?

I keep repeating this, but this is the most exciting time to try Chinese wine because China’s scene right now is like California in the 1970s-80s. You can be experimental, testing what works in your region, and people are producing products of quality and even more potential for future, all with very little recognition.

My hope is that we can shine a light on the amazing work they’re doing to create a sustainable future for the winemakers to continue to refine their visions and produce even better bottles.

YCW: You must see an opportunity here. What is it? What would you like to achieve with China Wine Club?

CH: I think that fundamentally wine is about creating reflections of ‘terroir,’ or 风土 for us, which comprises not only the land itself but also people, customs, seasons, change. People who are passionate about wine are essentially curious people: they travel through their bottles, learning about culture through their taste. In this way, most people have ‘traveled’ to the same European countries many times, and want to start pushing out towards places they haven’t been before – China is presenting something very different from what they’re used to but somehow they can speak the same language if it’s via wine. I hope that I can encourage people to explore China through its wines, people, and stories.

YCW: What has the response been from the Chinese wine producers you work with?

CH: They’re excited! Chinese wine is still niche even in China, and the metabolism for wine here in New York is crazy — the fact that a given bar can go through a few cases a month of a single cuvée is very high compared to most places in China or around Asia. So they’re very impressed with the potential here.

YCW: You just had a wine producer in town. What was that like?

CH: Dai ‘Ian’ Hongjing of Xiaopu was here and it was great! I always joke that no one wants to talk to me because I’m not the actual winemaker; it’s like speaking to the manager instead of the artist. We had a table at RAW Wine, did events with Lei and Somm Time, and took him around town. Everyone was thrilled to get his perspective and ask him more detailed questions about his wines.

YCW: What trade barrier issues have you encountered in setting up this business? What’s the biggest thing you’ve learned in the last few months?

CH: All of the export/import logistics are tough in the best of times, but this year has been a real challenge; the (sudden, changing) tariffs have been difficult to navigate. I have learned to be conservative with financial projections and I am just trying to play it slow and steady in growing the group of people who know and trust the wines and me. The community has been so enthusiastic and accepting so far — I’m very grateful.

YCW: What’s next for China Wine Club?

CH: I’m excited about this coming Lunar New Year! I’m working on lining up a bunch of fun events for February to bring the community together.

Interview by Kit Mention.