You are what you drink
By Grace Su (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-12-25 09:25
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Having champagne or vodka in two 'spirit centric' bars in downtown Beijing.
Ever feel like having an all champagne or vodka night? Now you can, sort of.
Back on the heels of a recent New York trend of only serving a particular spirit (such as Rum only bars like New York's Roneria Caracas), Beijing could be starting to do the same.
In Beijing, besides the Japanese whisky bars, one may think of two such "spirit centric" bars that fancy us so far, Dcollet and Touch.
Although they both serve three traditional cocktails, each one excels in a particular spirit: Touch for vodka and Dcollet for champagne cocktails.
Touch
Opened in May 2008, Touch specializes in having a wide selection of vodkas, 88 types in fact.
From Grey Goose and XO to their own in-house infused vodkas, all are a treat to be had if you love vodka.
The Crumble (88 yuan + 15 percent service charge) was muddled with fresh green apples and mixed with infused cinnamon vodka and a taste of apple pie.
Another drink was the Touch (88 yuan + service charge).
Light and refreshing, the fruit taste of the fresh kiwi and apple juice adequately covered the flavors of one and half ounces of ginger infused vodka and mandarin vodka.
The best thing about Touch is that they can lay all their infused vodka in front of you and you can ask to create your own masterpiece.
The sky is the limit with flavors like lemon grass, cucumber, chilli, vanilla, lychee, and basil (56 yuan per shot + service charge).
Be sure to have all your female friends go to Touch on Wednesday nights for their ladies night special: free drinks from 6 pm to 12 am.
You can choose from three drinks especially selected for each ladies night (last week it was Margarita, Mojito, and Maitai).
Club Dcollet
Within the walls of the Hidden City 1949 comes a cozy place to celebrate with champagne and champagne cocktails.
The lounge comes with plush velvet sofa seating, hand-painted walls (flowers inspired by cuve Perrier-Jouet Champagne bottle), and limited edition Barbie Phantom chairs designed by Philippe Starck, a French product designer.
The mastermind behind the Club Dcollet concept is Wilfred Kwok.
He also owns gem Glen in Sanlitun, as well as Club Glen, a members only whiskey lounge just above Club Decollete.
The Christmas Special (68 yuan) was made with fresh strawberries and champagne - garnished with two strawberry slices, it was had the freshest strawberry taste. Champagne bottles can be had (Veuve Clicquot is 1,180 yuan) and there is no cover or minimum table charge.
Touch
Tel: 59228880
Add: 2nd floor of Westin,
No 1 Xinyuan Nanlu, Chaoyang district
The Hidden City 1949
Tel: 15901292525
Add: Courtyard 4, Gongti Beilu, Sanlitun, attached to 1/5 Taverna, Chaoyang district