Great watering holes to while away the time
Print Edition
HANGZHOU has a lively bar and restaurant scene. The people that make these places a joy to visit have stories aplenty to share as they have seen some funny things over the years when customers drink a bit too much.
“Every person has a story, so does every cocktail, and I like that,” says 24-year-old bartender Shan Zi. The Taiwan native quit his job as a fashion designer to become a bartender.
He has worked at bars including at Shanghai’s Jing An Shangri-La and has earned a good reputation.
“If you like what you do then you become professional and because you like it, you will carry on,” he says.
Shan works at Smoky Whiskey Bar, one of three featured bars and restaurants this week.
Schanke Beer Bar
Beijing native Wang Lei has opened the only bar in Hangzhou that brews its own German-style beers.
“I think Hangzhou is a leisure city that is becoming more internationalized, so it needs such a bar,” he says.
He says he collaborated with a German company and introduced German beer brewing techniques and equipment to his bar. The bar features 14 stainless-steel brewing vats that produce beers like Weissbier and Schwarzbier.
The vats are placed in a glass room so customers can see.
The bar’s signature product is known as the “boards.” They serve glasses of beer on boards of various lengths from 1 to 3 meters. For every meter on a board there is 12 glasses of beer. Wang estimates that they sell 50 meters of beer every night.
The bar also serves German cuisine like pork knuckle and sausages, as well as pizzas and salads. They also have oysters imported from France for 98 yuan for six. A house band performs every evening from 9pm.
Address: Rm 1-3, Mansion 32, Qingchunfang (next to Smoky Whiskey Bar)
Tel: (0571) 5666-0999
Smoky Whiskey Bar
Shan Zi is Smoky’s cocktail advisor. The quiet bar serves only whiskeys and cocktails. Shan refers to himself as a “liquid chef” and prepares over 20 classic cocktails that cost about 70 yuan (US$11.27) per glass.
The Bloody Mary is a good choice because the recipe is from a small bar in Australia. The secret is the onion and black pepper have been marinated in vodka for 12 hours.
After learning the recipe, Shan says his customers were impressed and he shared the recipe with fellow bartenders.
If a Bloody Mary isn’t your tipple, ask Shan for his latest creation, which isn’t on the menu.
The whiskey is supplied by Stephen Notman, Scotland’s whisky ambassador to China and a highly respected judge at the World Whisky Awards.
Smoky features Highland, Lowland, Islay, Speyside, Cambeltown, and Japanese whiskeys.
To those who are not quite familiar with whisky, one of the bar’s waitresses gives a good description: “The Islay is like a tough father, the Speyside is like a mellow mother, the Highland and Cambeltown is like a strong brother, and the Lowland is like a gentle sister.”
The Japanese whiskeys tend to suit Asian tastes.
More than 70 whiskeys are on the menu priced from 59 yuan (US$5.92) to 419 yuan per glass.
Address: Rm 1-3, 2-2, Mansion 32, Qingchunfang (on Qingchun Road near Zhonghe Road M.)
Tel: (0571) 5613-9111
Marais Restaurant
Entrepreneur Webber Zhuang opened a European restaurant, he says, in Hangzhou after finding the city lacked good continental cuisine.
He says he had eaten at most Western restaurants in Shanghai and felt Hangzhou couldn’t compare.
Marais Restaurant is the result. With a capacity for 60 people and a one-minute walk to West Lake, the restaurant offers a quiet and relaxing atmosphere.
He says he choose to cooperate with his two favorite Shanghai Western restaurants, Mr Willis and Henkes (both with the same owner), and invited their chef, Mark Pierce, to train Marais’ team. He also uses the same suppliers.
But the menu is not confined to one cuisine. They serve French soups, salads and desserts, Italian pizzas, calzone and risotto, along with English fish and chips.
The menu is being slightly changed due to customer demands.
“We have many Italian customers and so far we only have 13 kinds of Italian pizzas,” Zhuang says.
For Christmas, a double-person set for 1,188 yuan includes pan-fried foie gras, lobster salad, grilled Boston lobster, turkey roll, pan-fried snapper, as well as starters and desserts.
Address: 1/F, Yuan Hua Department Store, 179 Yan’an Rd
Tel:(0571) 8779-1817
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