A Closer Look at the Bar & Club Awards: Best Whisky Bars in Beijing
With the "A Closer Look" series, we raise our glasses in recognition of the Beijinger 2016 Bar & Club Award winners, before giving a toast (in text form, of course) about why they were selected by our readers.
Beijing bar owner Xiao Ming had two great reasons to celebrate this year, with two of his bars – Hidden House and Revolution – receiving accolades in the 2016 Reader Bar & Club Awards. Beijinger readers gave Revolution an Outstanding mention in the whiskey bar category, while speakeasy Hidden House took the top spot as Best Whiskey Bar.
Tricky licensing laws, easily disturbed neighbors, summer crackdowns and the constant threat of impending airpocalypse make our city a great environment for the development speakeasy-style bars. Whether prohibition-themed or not, hidden bars have been a mainstay of Beijing’s drinking culture ever since a few enterprising ‘bar owners’ first ventured to serve ‘imported’ (read: suitcased in) spirits away from the major international hotels. Hidden House, concealed behind a bookshelf, behind a stone façade on Xindong Lu, has proved popular with Beijing’s imbibing public, earning the title of Best Whiskey Bar in 2016. Walk north of Jinkelong supermarket on Xindong Lu and you’ll find the stonework façade. Open the door, press the doorbell next to bookshelf and you’ll find yourself inside what feels like a repurposed medieval wine cellar. If watching masterful mixologists crafting your drink in front of you adds to your enjoyment of said drink, then Hidden House won’t disappoint. But we think it’s the intimate space, the great service and attention to detail that have won the loyalty of Beijing.
Located on the west side of what used to be Yashow, one of Xiao Ming’s two other bars, Revolution has been plying Beijinger readers with whiskey and cocktails since 2011. While it’s just as tiny as Hidden House, the bar’s décor leaves the prohibition era behind, aiming to live up to its name with a Cultural Revolution vibe. Calling it a dive bar is probably a tad uncharitable so we’ll call it deliberately shabby-chic, a nod to simpler (?) times, and a quirky place to take out-of-towners.
The whiskey category’s other Outstanding bar this year is Glen Classic, younger sibling of Glen Bar, one of Beijing’s longest-standing bastions of superb single malts. Like Glen Bar, Glen Classic offers the feeling of exclusivity without a membership fee. Booking in advance is essential and there’s a RMB 200 per person minimum spend, but once you’re inside you can pair your tipple of choice with a Cuban cigar or a plate of Iberico ham while enjoying the kind of exceptional skills and service that make Japanese bartenders famous worldwide.
Photo: Ken