Cocktails, Cigars, Chairs: Furniture Store Serves Drinks in Sanlitun

A statue of a prostitute pig guards the entrance of Crossover Club. Like most of the things that adorn this tiny bar in Nali Patio, she can be yours if you’re willing to fork out thousands of RMB.

Though ostensibly set up to serve cocktails and cigars, Crossover Club – the annex of a highend furniture store – seems much more interested in selling things than serving drinks. The staff admit as much, explaining that consumers with deep pockets like their homes to look like posh bars – and that this space is intended to show them how it’s done.

And so the bar is filled with various high-end knickknacks from stone candlesticks and wicker candle holders, to antler chandeliers and a probably preposterously expensive silver armchair that looks like an enormous flaccid football from the future.

This isn’t to say there’s anything amiss when it comes to the “butler service” or drinks themselves. The
Crossover Storm (vodka and cranberry) is subtle and tasty, and might be worth the RMB 70 price tag if you’re the kind of person who appreciates a nice berry garnish. There’s also an impressively long luxury wine selection with lavish annotations. A bottle of Château Latour (RMB 2,999) is likened to an epic poem.

Mismatched pillows and startlingly garish statues may be de rigueur in the furniture world these days, but we can’t help but feel that Crossover Club crosses the line into the realm of flashy and crass.

Daily 1pm-late. 1/F, Nali Patio, 81 Sanlitun Beilu, Chaoyang District (5208 6123)
朝阳区三里屯北路81号1层

A version of this article appeared in the May 2013 issue of the Beijinger.