The St. Regis hotel in Beijing is home to a number of the city’s hottest dining spots and watering holes. Highlights range from Cantonese to Italian cuisine, and from a cigar lounge to a steakhouse with city views. Yet one standout among these is the Press Club Bar, a stylish find located just off the hotel’s opulent main lobby.
Drawing Room Ambiance
In contrast to the brightly lit hotel lobby, the Press Club Bar is richly accented in earth tones with plenty of wood and leather. Mood lighting spills from abundant library-esque lampshades and candles, providing an intimate ambiance that is continued with the bar’s seating options—which include sofas and chairs set among bookshelves, creating a drawing room vibe.
International Club Beginnings
This historic bar has always been a press member hot-spot, harkening back to the days of the Beijing International Club, located next door. Journalists and foreign dignitaries frequently meet in this district of Beijing, and today members of the media still enjoy half-off at the Press Club Bar.
The Great Wall Bloody Mary
The Press Club Bar is also the place where you’ll encounter the Great Wall Bloody Mary, a classic Bloody Mary mixed with Yanjing beer, and garnished with lemon and celery! The first Bloody Mary is said to have been invented at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris by Fernand Petoit in the early 1920’s. Petoit later moved to New York and worked at the King Cole Bar in the St. Regis hotel in New York where the Bloody Mary was perfected when a hotel guest requested a vodka cocktail and Petoit decided to spice it up with salt, pepper, lemon and Worcestershire sauce.
Bloody Marys Worldwide
Today each St. Regis hotel around the world has their own signature version of the Bloody Mary. In Rome it’s The Mary Terranean, and in French Polynesia, The Bora Mary. Other notables are The Capitol Mary mixed by bartenders of the St. Regis Washington, D.C. and Harry’s Texas Bloody Mary from the St. Regis Houston. In New York at the original St. Regis where the drink was first conceived, the fabulous red cocktail goes by the name Red Snapper.
Great Wall Bloody Mary Recipe
Keen on mixing up your own Great Wall Bloody Marys? Here’s the official Great Wall Bloody Mary formula, straight from Beijing’s Press Club bartenders:
- Tomato Juice
- Fresh-squeezed Lemon Juice
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Black Pepper
- Salt
- Black Peppercorns
- Yanjing Beer
- Garnish with Lemon and Celery
St. Regis Beijing
21 Jianguomenwai DaJie
Beijing 100020
People's Republic of China
Phone: 86 10 6460 6688
Gayle Wheatley - Gayle Wheatley is a professional writer, designer, and artist based in Los Angeles, and the founder of Culture Vixen magazine.
