Intoxicating Beijing Remedies: New Cocktail Venue Bar 4 Nine Mixes Beijing With Booze, Opening Tonight, Jul 14

Mixology and all things Beijing converge at Bar 4 Nine. The newly opened Jiaodaokou adjacent cocktail bar (which celebrates its grand opening tonight, July 14, from 7pm-2am) promises to be one of Beijing's most innovative and intriguing venues.

The quirkiness is apparent before you even enter. Located on the second floor of a hutong building, above a popular chicken restaurant (yes, you actually have to go through it), the blink-and-you'll-miss it Bar 4 Nine has a set of pharmacy-esque cabinets situated prominently behind the bar. Those authentically Chinese drug store-like drawers may look like they're designed for Middle Kingdom herbs, but instead the owners plan to use them for customers that buy an entire bottle of booze and want to store that purchase for their next visit.

However, the drinks themselves take the medicinal, with a special focus on Beijing, theme even further. Designer Leo Zhang and bartender Alfred Yu co-own Bar 4 Nine with former Sweet Tart baker and founder Britt Langford, who now handles graphic design and marketing at the bar, have sprinkled various herbs into many of the venue's signature beverages.

One of the standouts is a soon-to-be-named shot made with Manyprickle, sealwort, Codonopsis pilosula (aka "poor man's ginseng"), mulberry, goji berry, prepared rhizome of rehmannia, and hawthorn along with 二锅头. Yup, baijiu. Together, the concoction is somehow simultaneously potent and soothing (in that order, packing a wallop that almost knocks you off your chair, before offering a gentle tingling warmth). Zhang (who honed his craft as a bartender at East Hotel's Xian Bar, along with Yu, pictured above, and fellow new venue owner Mu Li of Róng Bar) jokes that the shot's combination is "good for a man's health," and we can't argue that it makes for a tasty feat of strength. 

But Zhang isn't joking (at least not entirely). He goes on to explain that that medicine helps blood circulate, heating the body up and promoting kidney and brain function, while also kickstarting one's metabolism, and regenerate skin cells. "So it's supposed to be good for your skin by getting rid of old and dirty cells and letting new ones regenerate," Langford says, before translating a Chinese phrase that Zhang uses to succinctly describe its benefits: 新陈代谢, or: "Old leaves to make space for the new."

Langford laughs and adds: "I'm not a Chinese medicine doctor so not sure if I'm translating well, but that is the gist of what Leo told me."

The owners' passion for Chinese tradition also extends to the bar's name, which draws on a lao Beijing slang term that references the number of Beijing's ancient gates: four in the Forbidden City and nine in the outer city (including Dongzhimen, Chaoyangmen, and Andingmen near the bar itself, among others). Furthermore, every element has been thought through, down to the aged abacuses and minature pieces of traditional Chinese furniture dotting the bar.

Customers with more conventional tastes will also delight in the classic cocktail menu (which is more finalized than the house specials list, though more options will be added to its current total of 18 by early August). It consists of a smoldering RMB 90 Sazerac made with whiskey, brandy, bitters and absinthe. Yu and Zhang have ensured that this beverage is still enough to satisfy seasoned barflies, while also subtly flavorful enough to make each sip go down smoothly. The RMB 70 Charlie Chaplin, meanwhile, has sloe gin, lemon juice and apricot brandy, making it a sweetly zippy counterpoint to Bar 4 Nine's stronger fare. Other top choices include the margarita with tequila, lime juice and cointreau; the Moscow Mule with vodka, ginger, syrup and bitters; the Jack Rose with calvados, lemon juice and grenadine; and the Blood and Sand with scotch, sweet vermouth, cherry brandy, and blood orange puree (all of which cost RMB 70).

We're not sure what's more intoxicating: Bar 4 Nine's drinks, or its owners' passion for all things lao Beijing, down to the traditional snacks serves which Zhang remembers from his childhood. Regardless, we'll be back again to not only get tipsy, but also stay healthy with its creative mix of herbal cocktails.

Bar 4 Nine
Tue-Sun 7pm-2am (closed Mondays). 2/F, Andingmen Neidajie 308, Dongcheng District (no phone yet)
东城区安定门内大街308号2层
NOTE: After 10pm the downstairs restaurant closes, so ring the bell on the lefthand side and the owners will buzz you up.

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Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
Twitter: @MulKyle
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Photos: Bar 4 Nine, Kyle Mullin