At JW Tailor Bar you can get a well-made suit and a well-made cocktail but, as we discover on our visit, at no point can you get both at the same time. Practicality aside, this is, quite frankly, a disappointment.
However, upon finding out the cost of a suit – around RMB10,000 – we’re cool with just the drink. There are plenty of randomly placed jackets decorating the bar interior so we can imagine what our hypothetical suit would look like anyway (handsome and expensive).
We also see wall-mounted stag heads, framed vintage images and, in the bathroom, suit cut-outs and a comfy-looking hairdresser chair. Make that JW Tailor Bar-ber. “We mainly do undercuts,” says co-owner Bruce, pointing to his own undercut.
Cool. For the purposes of this ‘Eat & Drink’ review, we stick with the bar. Based on our preferences, Bruce suggests an Old-Fashioned and a Gin Basil Smash (RMB80 each). Whisky is the star at JW – we are told all of the fancy brands on offer – but the Gin Basil is the stuff of poetry, an earthy mouthful from your parents’ garden.
The drinks are excellent. Given one of the bar’s owners comes also heads up Parlor and Mai Bar, the quality of the mixes comes as no surprise.
Also unsurprising, perhaps, is the bar’s location: a Yongli serviced apartment. This trick is very 2016 (see Botany and Da Vinci, the latter is located on the exact same floor, even), but we applaud JW for its attempts at diversification. This isn’t, after all, just a hidden bar – it’s a hidden bar and tailor.
If anything, it makes visiting the godforsaken Yongli Plaza a more inviting prospect. Drop in for a haircut or suit fitting, stay on for a cocktail, and you have yourself a pretty productive day.
Sure, everything about JW screams ‘lad,’ from the gender-categorized menu, to the taxidermy and strictly male services. But, at the end of the day, JW offers a damn good drink and a classy atmosphere to boot (or suit, but only before 7pm).
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