Toy Box in Sanlitun Stays True to its Name With Playful Cocktails and Wacky Design

UPDATE: Toy Box has since closed.

Perched on an apartment block on the sixth floor above Sanlitun’s Dirty Bar Street, allowing a vantage point that makes you wince in empathy for the poor souls that must watch hundreds of humanity’s deprived acts every year, Toy Box is a charming little bar that out-speakeasies the majority of Sanlitun’s drinking establishment du jour.

Yes, tucked away in through the first compound entrance on the southeast side of SLT Houjie, around to the right, through door #5, and up past what must be the city’s highest concentration of tattoo parlors, Toy Box is well and truly hidden away from the grot of below, and that’s only one of its tricks.

Da Ou, or “Big Seagull,” one-third co-owner and bartender of the two-month-old venue, explains upon introducing himself that he doesn’t know why his mother named him as such. “I don’t give it much thought as I was too young to even remember it,” he says while zipping back and forth behind the bar until it quickly becomes obvious that the moniker fits his garrulous, frenetic, and slightly uncouth style of bartending. All the while he swears and is palpably excited to explain his way through the drinks.

Before starting however, he imbues to me his cocktail-making outlook, saying “I respect tradition but it’s often that as you move through your life you’re looking for different things, and the same goes for flavors. For example, through our twenties we often want something sweet, and cocktails have all of these elements which we can then play with and tailor.”

I soon taste what he means, with Da Ou condensing your average margarita – using 1800 Añejo tequila, Cointreau, and acid served straight up with a twist of lemon – into a small but heady mixture that cuts to the heart of the drink, making it far more adult than the type I’m accustomed to sipping in the sun.

Next, my guest requests her favorite playful cocktail: the grasshopper. Da Ou quickly discovers that no one’s bothered to replace the milk, but whereas a university-era tea would never get made under such sacrilegious circumstances, he goes rogue and whips up his best attempt anyway using Fernet-Branca, mint bitters, Malibu, egg whites, and a sprig of mint. Sadly, this one slightly missed the mark. One unforeseen aspect of lacking milk, crème de menthe, and substituting in Fernet-Branca is that the usual turquoise green hue is rendered a slightly unsightly muddy brown.

From then on though it’s a rapid fire succession of deconstructed classic cocktails (everything is approximately RMB 80) put back together with Da Ou’s signature touches: a particularly dry martini thanks to a dash of tannin essence, a whiskey sour both tart and spicy due to the addition of ginger, and an old fashioned that loses its orange accents to an extra helping of Amaretto.

The frenzy culminates in a hazy final drink of the evening, Da Ou’s own concoction exaltedly titled Valley of Amazement, and suitably strong, using alcohol all distilled in-house, including Amaretto, Campari, Chartreuse, and tonic syrup, making for a potent, fragrant, and wobble-inducing mix.

The bar itself takes a no-frills approach to design with clean, bare gray walls, a couple of tables and wooden furniture and bar, bottles neatly arranged on the back wall, and repurposed desk-type lights that illuminate the drinks. However, hidden behind this prosaic façade lies the bar’s best-kept secrets. With a nudge of a wall, Da Ou reveals a private drinking area; a tug of a bookshelf uncovers the bar’s very own distillery; and a push of the coat rack exposes a secret staircase leading up to another lounge space, bar, and door to the building’s open roof, which will certainly be utilized come summer.

Although Toy Box may be a little more puckish than some would like from a cocktail bar, its pull lies in the affable nature of its staff, its range of experimental drinks, and the unraveling and clever design of its space. After all, not all of us are chasing sugar anymore and would rather watch the mayhem from the confines of our safe toy box above.

Toy Box
Tue-Sun 6pm-2am. 601, Door 5, 42 Sanlitun Hou Jie, Sanlitun, Chaoyang District (8255 2319)
玩具箱：朝阳区三里屯三里屯后街42号5门601

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Photos: Tom Arnstein