Douglas Williams/Shanghai Daily

It doesn't matter which point of the compass you are coming from, South Beauty 881 Lounge Bar really is a beauty.
A luxuriously, labyrinthine lair quite capable of conjuring carnal considerations - this place satisfies on many levels.
South Beauty restaurants have been widely written about, and they've almost exclusively been lauded with praise; correctly so since they are some of the finest in China. Now South Beauty has poked a toe into bar territory and what an exquisitely pedicured toe it's transpired to be.
Much has also been written about the heady days of Shanghai in the 1920s and 1930s, notions of that era inform this, and many establishments have tried to exploit that nostalgia with varying degrees of success.
Nowhere, however, delivers a vision of sophisticated, sassy, modern night-time Shanghai while doffing exquisite millinery to her colorful past with such brazenness as South Beauty's lounge bar.
Soaked in history, the 1930s-built building belonged to a wealthy banker. It was later used as the Ministry of Tourism. This goes part way to explaining its immaculate condition and the continuing presence of a silviculturally blessed park to the rear.
Original windows, doors, fire place and flooring are a treat, reminiscent of a classic guest house in the far flung Highlands of Scotland. Then there are the Balinese wall carvings and furnishings, the funky red leather stools around the bar and that's before the roof garden gets a mention.
Despite its proximity to the highway the roof area offers a fabulous space with such a high quality of finish that these factors, with the modern, chunky Oriental furnishings create a dreamy place to spend an evening.
Naturally this is outdoors and this is Shanghai, so an evening in late June will be different from that in late November, dress accordingly and forgive my patronizing. Heaters with special umbrellas are being fitted for the winter months.
The trees, the soon to be lit festive lighting and the Zen architecture of the restaurant below all provide ample distraction from the traffic. Especially so if one is ensconced beneath one of the pagodas reclining on an expansive chez long, cushions aplenty, South Beauty Martini in hand and sexy tunes setting the mood. Phone to reserve.
Sensuality rules
There are also no less than 19 private rooms to choose from of varying sizes for those seeking a door to close behind them. Dinner for six without shark's fin or abalone and not going crazy on the wine will cost upwards of 5,000 yuan (US$620). South Beauty restaurants are famously expensive.
Behind the original building housing the bar is the Hot Potato-designed South Beauty restaurant. Valet parking is available. Guests receive the full red carpet treatment upon arrival with staff escorting diners or bar patrons to their respective destination.
The flamboyance of this shouldn't deter the more self-conscious; the classiness of the South Beauty 881 Lounge Bar isn't drowned in formality and pretense like some.
A four-piece jazz band, Sans Nom, plays every night except Monday, a Shanghainese jazz band as opposed to the shipped in variety and they have a young woman providing super sensual vocals.
There's a rich, liquidity to the sound and a barely concealed eroticism that has listeners concurring when the singer purrs Roberta Flack's "Feel like making love." Out with the band the tunes are 1970s and 1980s black groovy funk, low down and dirty, maintaining the amorous ambience.
Finger food (bar snacks) are available until three in the morning.
Next month the lounge bar will adopt a slightly different theme: that of a casino. Not one in which fortunes are lost and made and lost, there will be no gambling. Chips will be bought and these will be the currency with which drinks are procured.
Staff will sport appropriate attire, penguin suits, pencil mustaches, gelled hair. It sounds gimmicky but judging from how un-gimmicky the existing bar is it seems highly likely the casino theme will be realized with similar assuredness.
The customers that were present when Shanghai Daily visited early in the week were mostly Shanghainese.
Only in its third month it would be more surprising if such a complex concern didn't have a few teething problems staffing wise. Is there perhaps a need for a specialist catering college in Shanghai now that there are so many establishments serious about providing customers with top-quality service?
Another beauty about South Beauty 881 Lounge Bar is that whilst it's hardly cheap neither is it noticeably expensive. A glass of house wine is 50 yuan, the South Beauty Martini is 65 yuan.
Find South Beauty 881 Lounge Bar set back off the south side of Yan'an Road M., 200 meters from the junction with Shaanxi Road N. Call 6247-1581 for reservation.