Last night we managed to escape the constant business heartbeat, which does not miss a beat on the weekends, and spend a few hours on the town, at Jian Guo 328, the Flask and Ojis.
We kicked of with dinner at Jian Guo 328, a quite recent place but already a Shanghai institution. We ate our way through their signature dushes (pork grandma style, black mushroom, fish in nets, dates with glutenous rice). fermented tofu was good but will not be our favorite.
Apparently, I tried to wear a fish as beard. Take that, wannabe tough guys from Deadliest Catch.
Afterward, we went on a hunt for Shanghai’s speakeasy bars. no, there is no prohebition in China but a number of awesome and stylish hidden bars around puxi.
This is the first one: The Press. A sandwich shop on Shanxi Nan Lu. See the coke machine in the left corner? That’s the entrance to what is maybe the most famous Speakeasy in Shanghai.
The Press could easily fit into the MoMa. Coctails are a different league from what we are used to from Berlin.
But then, the main act. Open the Coke Machine…
… and walk into this awesome bar. Decor hints to the prohibition aera without being “in your face”, e.g. copper ligned lights, an Anselm Kiefer styled wall art of wiskey bottles behind black cloth, sound proof foam hanging from the ceiling, etc.).
Cocktails come in style. e.g. the Taiwanese Watermelon Tea is served in a flask hidden in a book (about tge only one we did not try).
After the Flask, we felt up for one more and visited Oji’s on 99 Taixing Lu. Iys only a bit hidden next to El Ocho.
Dial 0 and the door opens into a small hideout jnder the roof with max 20 seats. Japanese Mixologist Oji and Manager Michal man the bar.
No menue, you get cocktails based on your favorite spirit and taste. Athmosphere is very personal. Since the bar is still in soft opening phase, the crowd was mainly friends of Oji.
Even better than the cocktails was the Oji – Michael tandem. I have never seen such a meticulous barkeeper (rubbimg the glass with lemon and spraying perfume over the drinks). He spent a lot of time for the cocktails and the guests. So no place to go in a hurry. (there were a lot of appologies). Oji got a bit drunk over the evening. He would critizise.almost every drink Michael prepared, they would discuss and both apologize. We had a great time as this was a different but very personal evening. To be continued…