Bar Reviews: Haven, Kaiba Tap House, Kartel, Stocchi

Kartel

By Kirsti Jönson

What: ‘Destroy chic’ lounge... whatever that means

Why: Because you love to drink fine wine in a bathtub-cum-sofa

How much: Cocktails from RMB 55 – 120, bottles from RMB 170 – 12,880

Where: 4-6F, 1 Xiangyang Bei Lu, near Julu Lu. Tel: 5404 2899

Three floors of French panache, Kartel uses its location in the heart of the French Concession to its full potential. With no tall buildings obscuring the views, its floor to ceiling windows and rooftop terrace offer 360 panoramas of downtown Puxi – a trend we love that seems to only be gaining momentum.

Presenting la crème de la crème of French goods, the menu is heavy on the wine – unsurprisingly, since the owner also opened the Francophile vin destination Dr Wine just around the corner. In addition to the by-the-glass/bottle options, Kartel also incorporates the harvest into its cocktail list by offering wine-based mixed drinks, spiced up with Sichuan peppercorn and ginger. They hide their wine cellar on the fourth floor, and go all Wayne Manor on you by hiding a secret door behind a wineshelf. The cloak-and-dagger entrance opens up not to a drug den like the bar’s name suggests, but instead to Kartel’s very own wine school (although the institution is still in the works).

Barflys with an appetite should head on up to the fifth floor, where nibbles like a blue cheese and walnut tartine are served alongside drinks. Here’s where you’ll find the refurnished bathtubs that have found new life as sofas, spotlighted, of course, by lamps in shower fixtures. Inevitably, though it’s the top floor open terrace that will see the most traffic, at least until winter’s chill blows into town.