Your boy is back on the streets, checking out some new and not-so-new but noteworthy places for drinking in the city. These are not cocktail reviews – vibes, music, conversation, stories, and sound take priority. The search is on for challenging drinks, grandpa drinks in rocks glasses or loud glassware, and situations that AI can't replace and the algorithm can't find.
Sting & Honey:
Rock, but Not-Unhinged
Images by: Sting & Honey
New-ish on Julu Lu above Pass Residence, Sting & Honey is a rock and roll cocktail bar, except it's less Slayer and more Dashboard Confessional, and definitely not a dive bar.
A tiny, tiny elevator leads up to a dark room dressed in maple wood and black with two bars and several low and discreet table areas. Service from the young team was excellent. For example, after ordering a Thai street-food inspired Galangal Side Car (decent but just a few sips), our waitress gave us a walking tour of the whole place, including an immaculate walk-in fridge full of house-made infusions and concoctions, like a science lab.
The Pizza Margarita and Peanut Butter Manhattan looked tempting, but I spotted one cocktail I had to order – not a new concept, but my first encounter in the wild: a Hot Dog Old Fashioned. It tasted like hot dog water and whiskey, in a good way. Just wish the pour was heavier. This place has a unique vibe, which is dark and rock and roll but not unhinged. Not a fan of cocktail bars where prices aren't apparent on the menu, but am definitely a fan of some emo and emo-adjacent music (the playlist could lean even heavier into this) and Korean-style seafood noodles served in heavy brass pots, which are three things this place has going for it.
The check was 380rmb for two cocktails, a mocktail, and that noodle. Left without much of a buzz but with an appreciation for the effort, service, and vibe. It was memorable.
A Bar Has No Name:
Shadows & Soft Light
Images by: A bar without a name
In a renovated old brick shell on the south end of Shaanxi Nan Lu, near Jianguo Xi Lu, sits this sharply-designed, minimal, and warmly lit new bar by Ming Liao, a veteran of the Guangzhou speakeasy, Hope and Sesame, which is on that World's 50 Best Bars list. Even on a quiet post-CNY Wednesday night, the place was almost full, mostly with women.
The scene is soft and light, with off-white bricks and shadows evoking somewhere between Lust Caution and 2001: A Space Odyssey. There's something calming about the acoustics of the place and how words float through the air and muzak. Cocktails run 90rmb for classics and 100rmb for specials, with a poem-based menu of current specials (e.g., "Freedom of bare skin", "Pink") featuring ingredients like vetiver, lavender, black tea, and Changbai Mountain pine needles. There's also some off-menu cocktails, white wine, champagne, and snacks like Nanjing salted duck and Dongbei style smoked chicken. A coffee and mezcal cocktail arrived pre-batched but with a deep and rich taste, though they make others on the spot. Service is friendly and approachable, and Ming poured everyone at the bar a round of huangjiu to try.
I could see this spot being popular for dates, jiemei catchups, or conversations with clients in the design and fashion worlds.
Specters:
Punk Rock Dive Bar, Reborn – With Tiki Cocktails
Images by: Specters
The last stop on this night was Specters, the punk rock dive bar where the only ticket price is your youth. Their second reincarnation just respawned in C·PARK, which is quickly becoming known as "the underground INS". We walked in on a Thursday at 1am and they were playing "Straight To Hell" by The Clash – always a good sign. This new bar – built from the ground up – is a like fine-tuned version of Specters past, which includes for the first time a proper menu of cocktails, served in Tiki glasses that look like they came from the cupboard of a divorced dad from the American Midwest (they do).
Specters' head bartender Rae spent months perfecting a full-flavor-spectrum menu of cocktails with names like "Banana Brains" and "Amicable Divorce", averaging 75rmb and heavy in both alcohol and actual weight of glass. The latter comes in a pair of mom and dad shaped glasses, smuggled in from Vegas by suitcase. My favorite was "The Purple People Eater", with black sesame syrup and a sweet tangyuan taste that belies the 90ml of gin inside. "You can only do like 2 before its dancin time", said Specters co-founder, Morgan (also a former managing editor of SmartShanghai.com). Also liked the "Spice O' Death", a slightly-spicy passionfruit mezcal margarita served in a skull with a chili rim.
My companion summed up the charm of Specters like this: "There's just a lot going on. A lot to do." That's true about the Underground INS as a whole – this place is gonna be wild by summertime.
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SmartShanghai's full list of cocktail bars is right here.
