From the producers of surprise summer 2014 hit Capital Spirits comes the much anticipated sequel: The Distillery by Capital Spirits, now serving a soft opening menu at 23 Xinsi Hutong. Opened around August 2014, Capital Spirits, if you haven't been, specializes in just one brand of alcohol: baijiu. It was opened by a cadre of Beijing-traveled bar and alcohol rep folk, who were in turn inspired by Shanghai-based writer Derek Sandhaus' book on the subject, Baijiu: The Essential Guide to Chinese Spirits. Since then, Capital Spirits has been turning over some decent business serving as both the gateway suppliers of the spirit to curious tourists and expats and, at the same time, as a bit of an oddity to bemused neighborhood Chinese experts in the subject. It seems to be working. There's even rumblings of them being involved in exporting the concept around China and even overseas. Realness: fuck baijiu. Fuck that shit. Not a fan. In our earlier review of Capital Spirits, this website opined that drinking the stuff was like "getting suplexed by Hitler into the surface of the sun". I stand by that. BUT. But... This bar, Capital Spirits, is a great little place. They've got a great (arg... terrible) selling point, it's a lovely bar to drink in, and they've built up a nice community around the idea. It's a nice mix of friends and regulars. Plus they've got other stuff in there to drink if you're totally close-minded on the subject like me. Thumbs up. So "The Distillery by Capital Spirits". This is their next idea. Here it is: If you were in Capital Spirits during the early days, you might have seen this: It's a still. For making alchohol. Back then they were doing unholy things with Yan Jing beer. They've since upgraded the idea, had a new still custom made, and elicited the consultation services of some German spirit makers to make it more legit. The result is this -- Beijing's first (and probably China's first) distillery-slash-drinks lounge. Here it is in it's cage, towards the back of the ground floor of the place. Looks pretty neat. Looks like pristine and demonic science. Looks like a torture device from Saw. This adds to the neatness though. The Distillery is going to be using this to make vodka and gin, on-site. As of this writing, they're still waiting on some custom parts to come in, but within the next two weeks, this thing should be churning out the good stuff. The still is kind of the selling point. It's the angle. Their hook. But that's all it is. More than that, The Distillery itself is basically a spirits lounge, anchored around reverence for vodka and gin, and in particular how they show up in a Martini. The concept is thus: You've got your whiskey lounges, your craft beer places, your "bespoke" cocktails places -- The Distillery is aiming to your vodka, gin, and Martini place. So go in a couple weeks to check out this still to see what comes of that, but keep coming back because you like the Martinis. Here's the soft opening drinks list. They're hoping to add more to these. DRINKS The Take-Away: If you're a fan of Capital Spirits, there's a lot you're going to like here. It's basically like a cleaned up and slightly more refined Capital Spirits. A bit brighter, a bit sleeker, but still fashionably humble hutong. There's also a second floor, loft-ish kind of space that's going to have more seating. But yeah, kind of feels like you're at an after-party for art exhibition opening, with plenty of vodka flowing and important conversation flying around. Apps! Classy. Ggg-yeah. But yeah, the Martini I had was most excellent. It's a good start for the place. Looking forward to see what's going to come of this still -- should be a week or two for that. *** The Distillery by Capital Spirits is at 23 Xinsi Huntong, just around from Zhangzizhong Lu subway station.