gastronomy

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May 31, 2013

Shanghai Saloon

A Former US Cop Channels the Prohibition Era at a Cocktail Bar in China

The only elements that distinguish Senator Saloon from a 1920s speakeasy are its Shanghai address and Chinese staff—everything else is a faithful replica, from the thick velvet curtains concealing the interior from inquiring eyes outside, to the dark wooden paneling and red velvet flocked wallpaper and pressed tin roof imported straight from Texas. A collaboration between two Shanghai restaurateurs and American former police officer David Schroeder, Senator has quickly emerged as one of the expat community’s favorite watering holes, despite its being just shy of its first birthday. Schroeder left the force and relocated from Oregon last year to open the bar, and his passion for cocktails is rivaled only by his extensive knowledge on the subject. You can ask him anything about bitters, for instance, which he has laid out on the bar with labels facing the patrons to encourage conversation. Although his former career might seem at odds with his current job, Schroeder believes his law enforcement background provided important preparation. “As a police officer, the most important thing I learned was how to deal with people,” he says. “The ability to communicate across a broad spectrum is a huge element of both jobs.”

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Li Family: Culinary Heritage

Beijing's Exclusive Restaurant Preserves the Secrets of China’s Imperial Cuisine

The sumptuous dishes and austere traditional interiors of the Li Family Restaurant in Beijing are captured by photographer Eric Gregory Powell. Famed for serving the most orthodox Imperial Palace cuisine found anywhere in China, the feted institution has a clientele ranging from heads of state and ambassadors to celebrities like Bill Gates, Mick Jagger, the Clintons and action star Jackie Chan. Located in a modest house on a narrow alley minutes away from China's political heartland in the Zhongnanhai area of Beijing's Xicheng district, the restaurant requires a minimum of four days notice for bookings due to the length of time many of its specialties take to prepare. The Li family preserved Qing dynasty recipes dating back hundreds of years from the upheavals of the Cultural Revolution, after Li Shanlin, grandson of Empress Dowager Cixi’s personal cook, memorized 300 of them before they were destroyed by the Red Guards. The recipes stayed secret until 1984, when Shanlin’s daughter Li Li won the China-wide National Banquet Competition and the family opened a one-table restaurant in their home. The cooking so inspired Pujie, younger brother of the last emperor, Puyi, that he penned a poem in calligraphy that now hangs on the wall: “Your food transports me back to the Imperial Palace.” Even with outposts now in Shanghai, Tianjin and Tokyo, the recipes for house rarities like steamed snow frog oil served in a thimbleful of egg custard remain tightly guarded by the clan. “Our chefs are told nothing about the complicated balancing of ingredients or sauces,” says Li Aiyin, who runs the Beijing eatery.

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Spotlight

Gin and Titonic

NOWNESS Calls Time at the Bar for a Doomed Cocktail Party to Mark the Titanic's Centenary

In a fun recreation of the last moments aboard the Titanic, still life photography duo Bohman+Sjöstrand shot the last drinks orders of NOWNESS favorites Glenn O’Brien, Jeremy Langmead and Margherita Missoni. This Sunday will mark a century since the ill-fated, and infamously “unsinkable,” luxury liner RMS Titanic struck an iceberg and sank in the Atlantic Ocean, subsequently inspiring one of the most iconic disaster stories of all time. Until his recent blockbuster Avatar set a new record, director James Cameron’s eponymous aquatic hit was the highest grossing film of all time, and may well reclaim the title through its upcoming 3D re-release. Today NOWNESS commemorates the anniversary with a lighthearted twist, bypassing the lifeboats in favor of the doomed vessel’s cocktail bar. Filling the stools of famous passengers aboard in 1912, which included Macy’s owner Isidor Straus and industrialist Benjamin Guggenheim, are our own first class passengers: Glenn O’Brien, fashion designer Margherita Missoni, Mr. Porter’s Jeremy Langmead, model and singer Josephine de la Baume, composer Nico Muhly and artist Jennifer Rubell. Echoing the immortal line from Titanic, “We've dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen, but we would like some brandy,” NOWNESS asks each to discuss their last drink of choice. Easy on the ice please…

Nico Muhly
All I want is a margarita I had once at La Roca in Nogales, Mexico. It was Easter Sunday after a friend's wedding, her father had rented out the restaurant and the margaritas were beyond. Plus the room, the terra cotta…

Jeremy Langmead
I would have to opt for a dirty vodka martini—which, if drunk as the Titanic sank, would both be shaken and stirred by the time I'd finished it. A civilized person, the barman at Dukes Hotel in St James's, will tell you that you should never have more than two. I find eight rather pleasant. Despite leading to horrid hangovers, too many martinis have always, in my experience, been worth the pain. The first time I got horrendously drunk on martinis, in the little vodka bar at the Royalton Hotel in New York in about 1994, I fell asleep on the floor with my head resting on Linda Evangelista's feet. The second time, last year, I met my current partner. I can't recommend one enough.

Jennifer Rubell
Aperol, cava and Rose's lime juice. It's my house cocktail—every great dinner party I've ever had has been fueled by a pitcher of this.

Josephine de la Baume
A Moscow Mule: vodka, lemon, cucumber and ginger ale on the rocks.

Glenn O’Brien
The best drink I have ever consumed was a bottle of 1947 Petrus I got on a big birthday. But since we are talking 1912 consumptions this would not be doable. I consulted the best drinks book ever, The Gentleman's Companion by Charles H. Baker Jr., which first appeared in 1939. Mr Baker drank all over the world, with the likes of Faulkner and Hemingway, collecting cocktail recipes wherever he drank. I found one that seemed appropriate: Death in the Gulf Stream, or Hemingway's Reviver. "Take a tall water tumbler and fill it with finely cracked ice. Lace this broken debris with four good purple splashes of Angostura, add the juice and crushed peel of one green lime, and fill glass almost full with Holland gin." I figure if this drink doesn't kill you it will keep you warm until help arrives.

Margherita Missoni
A piscine (ice and champagne) would be a very appropriate pre-sinking drink. It's my drink of choice in general when it comes to cruising on a boat.

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