A well-known name in the Shanghai cocktail scene, Cross Yu climbed the ranks of the bar world to found one of its best-loved cocktail bars EPIC. And now he’s at it again with a new bar/lounge/cafe/club hybrid in Glory.
I started out in the F&B industry back in the early 2000s as a waiter in a Vietnamese restaurant. I have a lot of passion for people, from meeting to making connections, and I thought becoming a bartender sounded cool so I decided to put in the work to become one and learn the job.
I first worked in several hotels like the Marriot and the Holiday Inn but I didn’t bartend. Instead I was a waiter doing room service – it was about getting to know all angles of the industry. Around 2006 I got to go on a really exciting cocktail masterclass at a place called Laris [in Three on the Bund, now Mercato]. And that was my chance.
Back then there weren’t as many exclusive places and I had heard lots of incredible stories about Three on the Bund. It was a very international, very impressively designed venue. After the masterclass I told myself that’s where I needed to be and, after several interviews, I finally got a position at a bar called Vault.
It was the first time I’d worked under foreign management. The boss, David Laris, shook my hand and said ‘Hey Cross, welcome to Laris.’ I couldn’t believe that on my first day the laoban was showing me this kind of respect. I really felt that I needed to work hard after this. It wasn’t easy but I gave it everything I could.
After two years at Vault, I went to work at M1NT for three years. We did a lot of big super fancy events there with red carpets, shark tanks and celebrity appearances. It was cool. I grew a lot in that time.
2014 was a turning point in my life. In that year a lot of Shanghai cocktail stuff started with Speak Low, The Nest, Tailor Bar and Bar Rouge. Everybody decided they wanted to work for themselves. I picked a little villa in Old Xuhui which was cosy but nothing fancy. We played funky disco music with fun drinks like espresso martinis and cosmopolitans. I was born in the ‘80s, an era with a great party culture, I wanted to take people back to that age and that’s how EPIC began.
The customers at EPIC are like a family and so is our team. After working together for five years we decided we needed a new house and we started Glory. I’m a Christian so the word glory means a lot to me. The vibe here is more modern and classy, as are the drinks. We have lots of outstanding gins – all very botanical. The concept is like if EPIC is looking back, Glory is the future – but we still keep it retro. We prefer to say retro-future.
Glory
We have three floors so it’s bigger than EPIC. The first floor has a café but it can also host pop-ups, fashion and art. Its more about cool than comfort. The second is a lounge with an island bar and a club-level soundsystem. Lastly, we have the attic – it’s a high-class space with private booths for people who want that special customer service.
What’s the secret? You’ve got to have a solid team and you need to treat them like family. What they need is someone to really respect them. I will always help them with whatever they want to do. If they want to go to the kitchen, enter a competition or even be a DJ – I’ll always support them.
As told to Alastair Reid Schanche.
