Bars specialising in a particular tipple have been popping up all over the shop for ages now. There’s bars specialising in whisky of course, and rum is another drink that is enjoying a moment in the sun as the main attraction at certain drinking dens. There are even places that focus on neat vodka, pretending that the stuff has flavoursome merits, and that only philistines would dismiss it as merely the quickest way for impoverished Russians to take the edge of their miserable lives. Punch is a relatively unexplored niche however, but that’s exactly what you get at this bar in Shanghai. Booze. Fruit. They might just be onto something here…
Logan’s Punch in the Jing’An district is China’s first punch bar, and it has set some pretty high standards for any potential imitators thanks to the design work of Neri&Hu. It’s been conceived as a homage to the city’s back alleys of yore, with a bamboo-lined corridor extending from an entrance reception clad in reclaimed timber. Other urban materials from the colonial past are resurrected too, such as grey brickwork, while colour and youth have been added with graphics and found objects. Logan R. Brouse is the man with his name above the door; heartily sick of hipster mixologists fannying about with drinks that need to be ordered an hour in advance, he’s promising a raucous time fuelled by punch concoctions that really pack one. We’ll drink to that.
