If you feel slightly unsettled among the velvet divans and concrete tiles at Cold Drinks, that’s the point. Avroko principal Adam Farmerie hopes the moody scotch den inside San Francisco’s mammoth new China Live complex makes you feel “drunk with a slightly nostalgic sense of déjà vu—somewhere between a Shanghai film noir and Blade Runner,” he says of the firm’s art deco take on Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House, which appears in the Ridley Scott film. For inspiration for the bar’s discreet brass, leather, and lucite aesthetic, the team also trekked to Shanghai, soaking up the sepia-toned energy of the French Concession’s Bar Constellation. Of the two, Cold Drinks is the most suited to debauchery. Just don’t order too many of the $52 Rob Roys, or your hangover will be as heavy as your tab.
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