Gimmicks Abound at Sanyuanli's Von Bar, but at Least the Bartenders Don't Skimp on the Booze

Step up to the door, place your hand on the scanner, and wait for the beep and the woosh of the now open entryway. Ok, so the scanner just picked up on pressure and heat and didn't read your fingerprints, as if you needed to be a VIP to enter Sanyuanli's Von Bar. Futuristic and charming as that gimmick is, you're not about to quantum leap into some otherworldly facility.

Instead, it's yet another Japanese-style speakeasy. Its interior is posher and cozier than its nearby competitors Bar Roost and Hotaru to be sure, thanks to lights turned way down to a romantic, shadowy hue, and a long slender floor space that's smaller, but in a nookish fashion that makes you want to settle in.

Those elements may very well impress upon entry, but it'll, of course, take a lot more than that to set this cocktail joint apart from the numerous other Japanese-style speakeasies within spitting distance. One thing Von Bar has going for it: owner Voland Fan lived and worked in Tokyo for years, frequenting the Japanese metropolis' bars and indulging in its whisky. He runs Von with two friends, the debonair and mustached Ji Chi and the elegant Minmin (pictured in the lead photo above) who also help him tend bar. They serve stiff whisky-rife cocktails in what Voland calls traditional Japanese vessels, which he admits hold little significance beyond their aesthetic value and how they tie into the bar's overall Japanese motif.

When it comes to those drinks, Voland and co. thankfully don't skimp on the booze. Ji Chi mixed us up an off-menu, RMB 70 cocktail made with (brace yourself): Evan Williams Kentucky bourbon, Buffalo Trace Kentucky bourbon, Bulleit Rye, and 16-year-old Lagavulin single malt scotch. Was it a bit much? Uh-huh. Yet, the audacity of that concoction, and my ability to keep from tumbling from my barstool after slurping it down, amounted to a one-of-a-kind experience that was fulsome with numerous drinks in a combination that was somehow still flavorful and didn't clash. Thankfully I love my drinks stiff, got what I asked for and then some, and enjoyed the bartender's warm and cheeky hospitality. 

Yes, Bar Roost has a more organized range of drinks (listed on an English menu that Von Bar lacks). And there are plenty of more authentic Japanese bars in Beijing (Old Fashioned in Sanlitun Soho certainly springs to mind; hell, even Mokihi and Bar Roost have Von Bar beat in that regard). But the wild, bizarro quality of Von Bar, from its gimmicky entryway to the wacky cocktail combinations that its owner comes up with, make it a fun spot to pop in for a nightcap after grabbing a bit at Arrow Factory, Q Mex, Bottega, or Cindy's Umami By Han nearby. If Voland and his cohorts had a professional, bilingual menu on hand (instead of the pages of laminated lists in Chinese) that'd go along way to making the bar appeal to conventional crowds. Combined with the creativity and the upbeat, anything-goes-attitude of its staff that is already on plain display, could help Von Bar better realize its apparent potential. 

Von Bar
Tue-Sun, 7.30pm- 2am. 50 meters West of the Sanyuanli South Alley and Sanyuanli South Alley Intersection (a few blocks north of Q Mex and Bottega) (186 1004 0480)
朝阳三元里南小街

More stories by this author here.
Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
Twitter: @MulKyle
Instagram: mullin.kyle

Photos courtesy of Von Bar