Take One Cocktail Pioneer. Add a Dash of Maizidian. Remove Excessive Prices. Stir.
Ji Shaoshan is set to stir up Beijing’s speakeasy scene. His newly opened Maizidian lounge – aptly named Stir Cocktail Bar – is chic, modern, and understated. Those qualities make Stir a novel departure from its many on-the-nose retro and ostentatious competitors.
The month-old lounge (located in a back room at the FX Hotel that also houses Fiume and The Daily Bagel) has one slate gray wall and another painted red stucco, along with a snug floorspace, a woodgrain bar with alluring, rippling curves, and a soft jazz soundtrack drifting out of hidden speakers. You won’t find bowties, antiques, jumbles of bottles, murky lighting, or other overwrought speakeasy trappings here – Ji and his bartenders even don dark sports jackets and T-shirts for their shifts.
The menu is equally refreshing. Take their signature RMB 80 Apricot Old Fashioned; Ji infuses its Wild Turkey whiskey base with the tart fruit before stirring in a smidgen of 10-year-old Laphroaig single malt to give the cocktail a smokey edge. If you like your drinks stiff, this is the one for you.
Among Stir’s lighter alternatives: the RMB 85 Shanghai Gin (a Beefeater-based cocktail rounded out with yellow chartreuse and rare-for-Beijing Bénédictine DOM French liqueur for an herbal, crisp combination), the RMB 75 Elderflower Shiso Fizz (a vodka, lemon, and floral concoction that’s as fun for your nostrils as it is for your palate), and the RMB 75 Lemon and Basil Martini (whose name says it all).
As you can see, Stir isn’t one of the recent RMB 120-per-glass glitzy lounges saturating the local market. Ji's drinks not only wet your whistle but also satisfy your nostalgia for the more affordable Beijing of yore. That's fitting because Ji is a true Beijing cocktail vet, having gotten his start more than a dozen years ago at the long-gone The Stumble Inn (a fun sports bar operated in Taikoo Li back when it was simply called The Village), and the CBD’s Twilight (one of Beijing’s first professional cocktail bars; also sadly closed).
Just like its well-made drinks, Stir has all the right ingredients. Aged spirits? Check. Equally well-matured owner? Righto. Creative, deftly balanced drinks? Uh huh. Approachable ambiance? Most definitely.
If you stir all that together, how could Ji’s new venture not satisfy?
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Stir Cocktail Bar
Daily 6pm-2am. 1/F, FX Hotel, 39 Maizidian West Street, Chaoyang District
朝阳区麦子店西街39号富驿时尚酒店一层
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Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
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Photos: Kyle Mullin, courtesy of Ji Shaoshan
