Dapper men – the kind who wear tailored suits and custom bow ties – are naturally fussy with their beverages. Thus they drink at Glen Classic, sister to Sanlitun’s whiskey-centric Glen Bar. Located at the back of the Face compound, the exclusive gentleman’s lounge – sorry, we mean cocktail bar – keeps out the riff-raff both subtly, by requiring a smart-casual dress code and a 200RMB per head minimum spend, and blatantly, by locking the doors to anyone without a reservation. There are Cuban cigars and aged Iberian ham for purchase, cashmere suits on display, leather-backed sofas and drinks served in glassware that has been custom-made to enhance the ritual of sipping really, really good cocktails.

Enter Glen and you’ll most likely meet co-owner, barman and sartorially superb gent Daiki Kanetaka. For him, the drinks are everything: with a ten-year stint at the distinguished Star Bar in Tokyo under his tuxedo, he’s got a professorial attitude towards drinking. When he says he likes sherry, he means he spent two years in Spain and stocked the bar with his favourite reds. He knows his stuff, but thankfully he’s never obnoxious or showy – even when he’s mixing up the kind of high-end, bespoke cocktails on which Glen Classic is based. But rather than presenting a regular menu, Glen gives you a list of prompts that talk you through your personal alcohol tastes and feelings, allowing Daiki to select something tailored to you – or even make something entirely new. It’s so personalised some drinks might end up with your name on the label.

So how much of a savant is Glen Classic’s Japanese master-of-the-shaker? We showed up with our own list of challenges to see what he’d invent.

Address: Gongti Nan Lu, Face Hotel Courtyard, 26 Dongcaoyuan, Chaoyang District 朝阳区工人体育场南路东草园26号

Source: timeoutbeijing.com