Shoshu-Bar

Shochu is a potent Japanese liquor made from distilled rice or potato and is similar to, maybe, vodka in terms of its dilutability in creative cocktails. This swank bar in the Mitte district takes its namesake to heart, offering cocktails made with the liquor and that could easily pass as spring flower bouquets—the Chugoku, for instance, is made with shochu, jasmine tea, grapes and edlerflower sugar.

Quality reigns supreme here, as the sparse drink menu consists of only cocktails, cognac, and house-distilled gin martinis. The clientele certainly don’t mind its limited range (and steep prices, for that matter): it’s where suits go to loosen their ties after work, and where the well-heeled kick up their Christian Louboutins while clustering at the liquid-slick granite countertops.