Shanghai is a city where wine merchants are the best in the country, with a variety of bars and creative mixology, but it's hard to find a bar as "stubborn" as Bar XYZ. Bar XYZ is a classic Japanese style, without any fancy decorations, there is only a small window for barware at the door, which is slightly lit at night, the door and the wall are almost integrated, elegant and solemnly hidden on the side of Dagu Road, if you don't look for it according to the house number, it is easy to miss. The entrance is a retro wooden bar and wine cabinet, and the solid wood seats are very weighty, simple and classic, and down-to-earth.
Owner Wei Ming is not only low-key, but also quite stubborn about bartending, he only insists on making classic cocktails according to the recipe that has been passed down for many years, and the requirements for bartending operations are quite strict, and Bar XYZ is completely an extension of Wei Ming's will. Even with the limited type of bartending, Wei Ming, who studied under Constellation Kin-san, has cultivated a loyal audience in his bar with his solid technical skills and cautious heart. If you've ever tasted a glass of wine at Bar XYZ and you're as stubborn as the owner, you're sure to come back again and again, and that's about what many regular customers say.
When it comes to the stability of bartending, Bar XYZ is among the best in Shanghai, all because of the boss's obsession with excellence and meticulousness. Wei Ming is well known in the industry for his ultra-high-speed, two-stage Hard Shake stunts, but he doesn't pride himself on his skills, and he usually saves the bottom of the bartending to get a taste of what needs to be tweaked in this glass. The bartenders in the store are also well-trained, no matter who makes the wine, the shake is very powerful, the rhythm is stable and the frequency is just right, you can know that there is hard work behind the scenes; The ice cubes must be hand-chiseled, and the ice with few edges and corners is used to make the wine more balanced in terms of taste and temperature variation.
To evaluate the taste of Bar XYZ's cocktail, it is simply crude and delicious. The reason why it is delicious is that the bartender has a more accurate grasp of the preferences and styles of the guests during the communication process, and the recommended wines can better meet the needs of the guests; The second is that the bartender has a different idea of how to present the wine. "What we're doing here is a classic cocktail, and the fancy décor doesn't have it." Bar XYZ is good at subtraction and high-quality wines, the bartenders are simple, clean and pure, and the bartenders are interested in highlighting the excellent flavor of the base wine itself without adding too much.
For example, bartender Yang Hua directly uses the sour made by Montenegro. Montenegro is generally not used as a base wine, and bartenders will use this wine instead of Vermouth to make negroni or boulevardier variants, but this sour is dominated by Montenegro, and the sweetness of the wine itself is balanced by lemon juice, and the sourness, sweetness, a little bitterness and herbs are properly blended with each other, which requires the bartender to have a thorough understanding of the wine itself, and a strong grasp and sensitivity to the proportions.
In addition, if you want to test the stir Dry Martini, or Gimlet, XYZ and other cocktails that need to be hardshake, you might as well try the craftsmanship of bar xyz, Dry Martini is soft and transparent, and the layering is slowly released after the mouth; The cocktail that needs to be shaken is integrated, full and whole, and the ice chips are clearly and evenly grained, and you can drink the bartender's dedication in the wine.
XYZ is the first glass of wine that Wei Ming learned to concoct, and it is also the origin of the name of the bar, which probably has the meaning of not forgetting the original intention. For classic cocktails, there are many bars that simplify the preparation in order to increase customer traffic, but there are very few that focus on quality and can seriously make a drink.
