Hush Money: Glen Classic Caters to Discerning Drinkers

There’s something slightly Lynchian about Glen Classic. Is it the dress code posted on the door? The James Bond lookalike who asks if you brought your VIP card? Or that if you ask them to recommend a drink, you’ll be subjected to the world’s most earnest and impassioned speech on the art of bartending?

The proprietors opened Glen Classic this month after complaints that their popular high-end whiskey bar, Glen, was getting rather raucous. With low lighting, solemn piano music, and posh, dark-wood decor, this is a much more muted spot for the moneyed of Beijing.

Minimum charge per person is RMB 200, which isn’t made clear on the otherwise over-informative menu filled with lists of obscurely opulent sherries, whiskeys and gins. (But if you have to ask, you’re probably in the wrong place.) That said, if money isn’t an issue, the drinks are well worth your while.

Owner Daiki Kanataka mixes cocktails (RMB 100-150) with the stylized finesse of a performance artist, drawing on years of experience at high-end Ginza joints in Tokyo. If you can’t tell your Speronis from your Negronis, Kanataka will rustle up his own concoction based on your preferences.

The service is impeccable, if somewhat otherworldly. Should you place your glass too close to the counter edge, a rather neurotic-looking barman will leap over and move it. Carelessness has no place at Glen Classic. Wandering in off the street is also discouraged. With consummate courtesy, the soft-spoken Kanataka asks that we reserve a seat next time. And why shouldn’t entry into this hushed, meticulous realm be as ritualized as the rest of it?

Glen Classic
Mon-Sat 7pm-2am. 26 Dongcaoyuan, Gongti Nanlu, Chaoyang District (6557 6788)
朝阳区工体南路东草园26号

By subway: 700m northwest of Dongdaqiao station (Line 6)

Also try: Glen, Apothecary

Photos: Sui