Bar, Part Of Dunhill Flagship Store At Plaza 66, Extends Dunhill’s British Style And Traditional Atmosphere#
Plaza 66, a sprawling office and mall complex in Shanghai’s Jing’an District, recently unveiled the new Aquarium by Kee bar, part of the Alfred Dunhill flagship store. Designed to be an after-work sanctuary for the area’s businesspeople, the 40-seat bar extends Dunhill’s sophisticated style to every aspect of its decor as well as its drinks list.Unique marketing efforts like this are nothing new to Dunhill’s China operations, which last year built the world’s fourth Alfred Dunhill “Home” in Shanghai, following London, Paris, and Tokyo. These “Homes” are designed to represent the sort of lifestyle promoted by Dunhill (as well as their products), and function as private clubs that, as Dunhill CCO Sven Gaede said, “are not just retail environments, but will also incorporate ancillary services such as a club, restaurant, spa, and barber shop, as well as bespoke tailor services and Bentley chauffeur services.”
In Shanghai, Dunhill is extending their exclusive marketing tack to appeal to many (primarily male) luxury buyers’ desire for “sanctuaries.” With few places remaining in this bustling city to have a calm drink or relax among other businesspeople, Dunhill is basically importing the old British model of the men’s club to Shanghai, where China has always had its own versions of this. Mixing them together — and throwing retail into the mix — Dunhill is scoring what I would consider a marketing coup. Brand-Lifestyle tie-ins have become incredibly successful in Asia in recent years (Just look at the “Passion for Creation” exhibition held earlier this year in Hong Kong), and Dunhill’s male-centric strategy will probably pay dividends. Their brand is already well-established in China among middle-aged luxury consumers, so they have to go beyond simple brand-building to brand sustainability and flexibility — what works in Shanghai may not work in Beijing or Chongqing.
Shanghai Daily profiled Dunhill’s new “Aquarium” bar:
The bar looks right off the set of a James Bond flick, all suits and cigars. Dark, aged leather dominates the underground den, while those with an eye for taste will identify Persian rugs, oak and crocodile hide paneling and polished brass. There is almost a moneyed air of olde English decadence in the 1970s-styled room, designed by Gavin Tu in collaboration with Kee co-founder Christian Rhomberg – so thick you want to cut it with a knife.
The elegant bar is modeled after Albert Loo’s swank American Bar in Vienna. Here, the target audience of Dunhill patrons, office executives and nearby hotel guests can get rowdy and sip on old-fashioned but well-made cocktails like a Manhattan or the ever-reliable Martini (best shaken with gin, of course) for 70 yuan (US$10.24) plus 10 percent service. The drinks list, complete with 42 premium whiskies, may not win any prizes for originality or funkiness, but what else would you expect from a stiff upper-lipped grown-up bar? Leave the fruit juice for the kids, as they say.
The food menu is also concise and well-considered. With just a 20-square-meter kitchen to work in, one should hardly expect impressive towers or elaborate tiens to be plated. Instead, mis en place is done off site, and the finishing touches are done a la minute (oh, the paradoxes of modern cuisine). What you get are straightforward, elegant and rewarding dishes like Parma ham and melon (75 yuan), black truffle potato soup (40 yuan), sauteed lobster and tomato linguine (150 yuan) and sliced veal tenderloin and potato puree (135 yuan). Each of these dishes, and the many more including English roast beef sandwiches (85 yuan), assorted dim sum (50 yuan) and e-fu noodles in soup (50 yuan), are just what a gentleman requires for midday sustenance or a quick evening meal to mop up the alcohol.
Of course, the lounge is not looking to alienate the fairer sex, and ladies are more than welcome in this subterranean men’s world. The modern lady is never out of place with a single malt or cocktail in hand, and if it’s sweets they’re after a dessert platter of tiramisu, chocolate cake and cheese cake can be had for 40 yuan.
The second of its ilk in Asia (the original was set up at the Alfred Dunhill three-story flagship store in Tokyo’s luxury capital, Ginza), The Aquarium is also the brand’s second collaboration with Hong Kong’s Kee club after the success of Kee at 796 Huaihai Road.
Project manager Eva Lee believes the two brands to be perfect bedfellows. “We have guests coming in to tell us ‘this is very Kee,’” says the Hong Kong native. “Still, The Aquarium has a totally different feel to 796.”