The Opposite House – which opened in 2008 to an appreciative crowd in Beijing’s buzzy Sanlitun neighbourhood – has just reimagined its resident bar.
Set on the ground floor of the 99-room hotel, the lofty space is the work of New York-based AvroKO’s Bangkok office – the inspiration, apparently, coming from the modernist studio of ceramicist, Lucie Rie. Certainly, the room has an element of grand Gatsby-esque fantasy, the eye drawn along by the long linear lines of a central communal table that’s flanked by a spice wall, metal mesh panels and copper trim; and furnished with giant chandeliers, and leather club chairs from AvroKO and Stellar Work’s Brightliner collection.
All this serves as a suitably soigné setting for a whimsical drinks menu dreamed up around the Silk Road. Which explains the Genghis Khan Martini spiked with Mongolian kumis (or fermented mare’s milk) and sea salt, and a Canton Mule of wheat vodka and kumquat. A late afternoon service brings an exuberantly stocked drinks trolley at which non-shaken cocktails are prepared tableside.
And should the munchies strike, the kitchen sends out Wagyu sliders, aged San Daniele prosciutto, and Norwegian salmon poke bowls, though, if you ask us, it makes more sense to hightail it for the Peking Duck at in-house restaurant Jing Yaa Tang, and swan back for a post-prandial drink and music. §
