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Top Food & Drink Haunts For Shanghai's Best Bartenders

2017-05-16 ShanghaiWOWeng

Is there some secret speakeasy hole in the wall that only bartenders know about? When you’re at work, where do these guys who work all night to keep the drinks flowing for you hang out during their time off?


Shanghai WOW! set out to discover where nine of the best bartenders, and self confessed bar nerds, go out in Shanghai on their days off.


JOHAN HOLMBERG

Owner @ Wonderland



“Bartenders in Shanghai in general like to support each other, and we like to show our face and go and visit our friends at other bars if we have a chance, because we have a very limited amount of time to go around and to see our friends working, because we’re working the same hours.


“Some people say Shanghai is only about eating and drinking, and it is, but it suits me very well. I like Eddy Yang’s bars, and I like to go see Yao at Union Trading Company as much as I can, also Logan’s Punch, Daniel An's bars and the Rooster around the corner from Wonderland, Chase is a good friend.


"My drink of choice depends on my mood and the time of the day. I don’t mind to have a beer during the daytime and in the sun, I’m not afraid to have a beer even at nighttime. Cocktails, I drink from bartenders I trust. There’s a lot of ways to screw up a good cocktail, and there’s a lot of places in Shanghai that can manage to do that. A cocktail is art for me and for my friends in the industry, so we end up drinking cocktails where we trust the bartenders to make good cocktails, instead of paying RMB120 for something that’s undrinkable. You eat and drink where it’s consistent, and even when the main guy isn’t there you still get the same thing delivered. If I'm not drinking, I'll go skateboarding with my girlfriend Emma.”


Wonderland

Address: 1311 Xinzha Lu,

Hours: Daily, 4pm to 1am (last call 12:30am)


EDDY YANG

Head Barman @ Above The Globe



“On my day off, normally I’ll go to the playground or Disney Land with my daughter. I work pretty much seven days a week, I don’t have a proper full day off.

 

"Before I got married, my day off would be the pub and drink some beers. Three years ago we used to go to Sinan Mansions, we’d never go to Xintiandi, that kind of tourist place, we’d go somewhere with atmosphere and hang out with some of my friends. But now there are so many choices, too many places."


Above The Globe

Address: 7th floor, 1013 West Beijing Road

Hours: 5pm - 2am


LOGAN R. BROUSE

Owner @ Logan’s Punch

 


“Usually on my day off I still go to bars, but one of my favorite places, I don’t why I guess I go for the singing and the shrimp, is Hooters (on Huaihai middle road). I really do go to Hooters a lot! Me and a few of the other bar guys will go after events. There’s Coors Light, there’s Jameson, there’s singing every hour. I don’t what it is, but it’s relaxing, and this is a real bartender thing but they upsell, which I love people doing to me. At Hooters the girls will come up to you and write their name, and say: “Do you want try this?” I’m so happy about it. That’s my favorite spot to go to.

 

“The Shanghai bar scene is pretty tight, we all hang out a lot together. Last Monday there was a whiskey tasting at a bar, and then hooters. Usually I’m off Sunday and Monday, that’s a normal barman day off. I can see the city a little bit on those days and when I go out at night it’s fun because no bar is busy, so I get to see everything that’s cool.

 

“Day drinking is a big thing when you’re a bartender. If it’s my day off I don’t like to be out at night sometimes. Sometimes I want to go to the movies or have a nice dinner to relax without being out at night. But daytime day drinking is fun.

 

"For me I wake up early, but I don’t have to as I have nothing to do in the daytime. A lot of us are the same, especially the guys who don’t have kids. For us to meet at 1pm and drink all day before work isn’t the end of the world.

 

“At nighttime, if it’s the weekend I’ll go to KTV. For a lot of bar people KTV is good because it’s non-stop. When you finish a shift at 3am you’re not tired to go to sleep usually, you want be out that’s why hot pot is good and KTV is good.”

 

Address: 99 Taixing Lu, Bldg A, 2/F, Room 20

Hours: Daily 6pm - 1 am 


KEVIN XIE

Head Barman @ Deus Bar



“My life is very simple when I’m not working. When I have a day off I usually go for dinner with friends, or I take my wife to see a movie. If I have a holiday then we’ll going travelling abroad somewhere.

 

“I sometimes meet other bartenders to hang out on a day off. I really like whiskey, so I prefer to have whiskey cocktails. If I do go to a bar on my day off then I like to have a drink at Senator Salon.”


Deus

Address: 158, Julu Lu

Hours: 5pm - 2am


CHRIS FOSTE

Shanghai Bar Consultant

 


“I have two styles of days off. I work a lot, and a lot of my work involves drinking and socializing, being out there. I’m an extrovert, I really enjoy going out and being social, but even then you lose a bunch of energy, and I can only drink for a month and a half straight. When I get a day off I like to sit at home, watch movies, hang out with the dog, and be dead to the world for an entire 24-hour period.

 

“The other style of day off that I have, that’s me going around from bar to bar hanging out. I live in the Jingan area so that’s usually where I hang out. There’s a bunch of small bars all around there. One of my favorite small bars I like to go to in a back ally is called That One Place. It has no advertising, but the barman, Alex Grimes, is a great guy. He sells mainly vape stuff, but all of his craft beers, some really nice stuff, are RMB25 flat. So I hang out there, it’s like a living room with a bar attached.”


KAORU TAKII (TK)

Head Barman @ El Ocho



“On my day off, after I get up I have a coffee or go to a café. I like to cook myself at home, usually at lunchtime. After dinnertime, I try to visit some of the places that customers recommend to me. After that a bar, it depends on the day but usually it’ll be Union Trading Company or Sober Company, Speak Low and Barules this kind of place. These are my favorite places right now.

 

“My days off are Sunday and Monday and it’s so slow everywhere. Usually if I’m not drinking, especially in this season, I’ll go to the pool in the daytime. Or I’ll go to the hot springs, Japanese style and relax, sometimes that way. If I go with Logan to Hooters then it’ll be crazy, I’ll lose a day, a whole 24 hours, so I can’t do that too often!”


Address: 99 Taixing Lu, 3/F, near Wujiang Lu 

Hours: Daily 6pm - 3 am 


MACK ROSS

Head Barman @ Tour



“We’re closed on Monday, so I always have Monday off and sometimes another day off. I work 5 or 6 days, so I don’t have that much time off. Monday’s I try not to go out at all, because I’ve just spent five or six days in a bar. My idea of relaxing is not really going to a bar. I probably do always go out, but it’s to somewhere different to catch up with people I don’t see very often.


“But after work, often enough, I usually end up at the Beaver. They have a good selection of beer, they’re open late, it’s kind of on my way home, and Kit, the owner, is a really nice guy. I bump into a lot of people there, you’d be surprised. Not necessarily all bar people, but there’s a couple of guys I know who go there for after work drinks sometimes.

 

“On my proper day off, I often go down to the West Bund, the park with the rock climbing wall. I live five minutes from there by scooter so I just go to hang out, lay down on the grass and relax, I go there quite often.”


Tour

Address: 462 Changle lu

Hours: Tues - Sun 7pm - 2am


GEO VALDIVIESO

Head Barman @ Unico



“I remember the day off I had avoiding the world after a stressful Saturday night in Unico, it happened that I ended up visiting a good friend, Jair from 1515 West at the Shangri La. He’s a mad party animal just like all my lovely guests! We got invited by an awesome friend called Dima for an event that was quite unique, Barcardi’s No Commission. We got enough tickets to host the biggest prohibition rant ever made, so many cocktails and drinks available you can't imagine, plus the art exhibition was mad cool.

 

“Anyways, we ended up having a crazy party and of course we poured drinks and shots for many of our colleagues and suppliers in the industry, it’s like revenge being friendly!

 

“Remember many bartenders hate drinking on their days off, and I include myself on the list, but if I hadn't done this event on that Sunday, I would be just stuck on my sofa doing absolutely nothing.”


Unico

Address: Three on the Bund, 2/F, 3 Zhongshan Dong Yi Lu, near Guangdong Lu

Hours: Mon - Fri 6pm - 2 am Sat - Sun 6pm - late 


MICHAEL CICHON

Head Barman @ Hop Project



“On my day off I’m looking first for a late lunch place, I probably would have slept in quite a bit, so going somewhere like Blackbird with your girlfriend or significant other. They do a truffle brioche burger and they’ll actually cook it medium, medium rare, which is a rare thing for a restaurant to do these days.

 

“I’d say between 9-10am I’m up everyday, especially now I have a little dog. I love going to Sumerian Coffee as it’s just up the street from me. They have some nice tasty bagel sandwiches.

 

“For the evening stuffs I’m going to take my girlfriend somewhere nice. I’m also looking to try a new establishment to get inspired a little bit. I like to go over and say hi and see what they’re doing and taste something new. I’d say many people who work in F&B tend to circulate their money back into restaurants and bars.

 

“I also find I enjoy going over to Shake and having some live music in my life. They have a simple, but tasty little menu. Sometimes I’ll just go there for a cocktail and eat some oysters first and then go out.

 

“Different establishments have their different vibes, but I’d say you also get a lot of the same people coming through. Shanghai is such a big city, but the world is so small, especially when you’re inside the inner ring road and in the foreign community particularly I’d say. All of us have some interesting characters we all encounter from time to time…”


Hop Project

Address: 372 Dagu Road

Hours: 11am-11:30pm

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