Beijing Boyce XXIV
BEIJING BOYCE XXIV
- Opening Shots: Zing by Doodoo, Bookworm, Browns, Q Bar, Phil’s, Raj, and Stone Boat
- We Got Email: John Bull Pub, Maggie’s, and No One Likes to Read
- Flippant Festival Footnotes
- First Impressions: Face and A-Che
- Happen Stuff: Cafe Pause, Champagne, Zeta and Tree
- Closing Shots: City Weekend and Tian Yue.
OPENING SHOTS
These are the nights to enjoy a drink on a rooftop, deck or patio, and my favorite spots remain Pavillion and Stone Boat Cafe, with other good options being Drum and Bell, Frank’s Place and Q Bar. Remember, our lungs filter pollution from this city’s air and a strong collective outside drinking effort might allow us to spot a star or two some evening. (Note: Pavillion offers the added flashback value of hearing Wham!, Huey Lewis, The Vapors and Jackson Browne within an hour.) / John Bull Pub, run by legendary bar proprietor Frank Siegel, is saying toodleloo London and hello Houston as it transforms into a Texas BBQ joint (see “We Got Email”). / Zing by Doodoo, an esteemed member of the Bad Bar Name Hall of Fame, is also changing identities and will reemerge as Thai restaurant Serve the People, which is hardly a better name given that it evokes cannibalism. / 49 kuai for a pint of Carlsberg at Face. Ouch! / The Bookworm celebrated its one-year anniversary yesterday. With tasty food, interesting lectures, live music, plenty of books for sale or loan, and an extensive beverage menu, this place has been a runaway success. Not surprisingly, its incredible popularity can make it tough for wireless seekers to get a seat, and that can mean occasional forays to Le Petit Gourmand or SPR Coffee. / Browns now serves “jungle juice” during Wednesday ladies’ nights, which means people may soon be swinging from the rafters as well as dancing on the bar. Speaking of Browns, the foam party two weekends ago saw bubbles upon bubbles for most of the night, but they had burst by Sunday brunch. The place was virtually empty, yet it took over 20 minutes to get a simple breakfast and the COFFEE MACHINE WAS BROKEN! “If this had been my first visit to Browns, I would never go back,” said a downright bitter and caffeine-withdrawn M-Dawg. / Nearby, The Loft has renamed itself Hot Loft. I have no punch line to do justice to this marketing brilliance. / Reader K.S. aka Killer Schoolmarm has spoken to the owner of recently chai’d The Big Easy and says the Louisiana-style hotspot will again grace our city, retaining the spirit of its original interior, but with a new outside look (more to come on this). / M-Dawg and I visited Q Bar two Saturdays ago and waited not only 15 minutes to order, but also 30 minutes in vain for our drinks. With parched throats, we went to Phil’s Pub and soon had Gin Tonics at one-third the cost. It seems to me that Q Bar is best when providing quality cocktails in a tranquil environment, which suggests a need to focus on speeding up drink delivery rather than on, say, hiring a DJ to play house music. Translation: I want my dry martini and John Lee Hooker! Fortunately, the drinks were coming fast and slightly furious during a visit earlier this week. / Speaking of which, Trevor and Kenn from Alternate Paradigm will slip into aprons and host an end-of-summer BBQ on Q Bar’s rooftop (September 23, 2 PM-late). Twenty-five kuai gets you a cheeseburger, two hot dogs, grilled veggies or six wings, all of which come with a baked potato. / Skipping back to Phil’s, I visited several times recently and rediscovered the joys of cheap but decent cocktails, 30-kuai Erdinger, and a friendly neighborhood pub atmosphere. Moreover, after a long stint in Qingdao, owner Phil is back and teamed up with Sally. My only recommendation for this place: vaporize the PlayStation console, or at least anyone using it. / The new branch of Raj held a party last Saturday night with the expected buffet of Indian food and traditional dancing. The rooftop is ideal for enjoying a few brew (from 15 kuai for Qingdao to 25 kuai for Kingfisher) or some wine (though those puny glasses have to go), before heading to nearby Bed or Drum and Bell. / The Stone Boat has upgraded its wine and cocktail menu over the past year and credit goes to Amy and Jonathan. The Martini and Mojito are better, though the latter is still light on alcohol, and it is nice to enjoy wine in a proper glass in such a relaxing spot.
WE GOT EMAIL
Email: “Your beer gut must be even bigger than mine the amount of guzzling you must do in the interests of research. You should know that a hoary old favourite, John Bull Pub, will soon change its name and its style to Tim’s Texas Barbecue. [Owner] Frank [Siegel] is going to concentrate on his two (maybe more soon) Sequoia coffee houses. Sad, but inevitable.” - M.T.
BB: Frank, who opened Beijing’s first non-hotel bar 16 years ago, told me the new BBQ joint is slated for late October and that he’s been getting his smoker ready, so to speak. John Bull Pub holdovers will include the trivia contest on Tuesdays and the Mexican food cart on Fridays and Saturdays. The second Sequoia is open on Sanlitun North.
By the way M.T., “beer gut” is such a crude word for a distinguished part of our bodies that is years in the making. Why not something more dignified, such as, “the round mound where brew doth abound”, “tribute to barley-based beverages,” or, as M-Dawg suggests, “Belgian bulge”?
Email: “I wonder how I get on these email lists. Who are you? Want a suggestion? I read computer screens all day and there is NO WAY I want to read all this text, even if it has things in bold a la that’s Beijing style. Find a more effective way to communicate. No one likes to read. It’s a fact.” - C.N.
BB: Yo, C.N., my inbox shows that you subscribed to this newsletter. In other words, you pretty much begged like a randy font monkey for 3,000 words worth of Courier New biweekly. Could there be a link between your forgetfulness and aversion to reading? Just asking…
I realize this newsletter’s all-text look is very mid-1990s BBS but, a) I haven’t had many complaints about it, b) I don’t have time to add pictures or smiley faces, and c) those were fun years, when the Internet was more a novelty and less another way to keep us connected to work 24/7. And the rock band Veruca Salt was still together. Furthermore, some people can handle a long newsletter, as this next, uh, *eccentric* email shows, picking up on my comments last issue about Sanlitun lady bar touts and substance sellers:
Email: It is currently 6:45 AM, Sunday morning… I got up around 5 AM due to being a bit parched, so I headed over to my kitchen for a cold drink. Oddly enough, I was asked if I wanted a lady bar a few times on the way there, and on my way back to my warm comfortable slumber I was accompanied by a young African man who wanted to discuss politics before the inevitable, ‘Want some stuff, man?’ I ditched him and turned down the first alley, which leads to my second bedroom/office. I figured: let me check my email. I am anxiously awaiting some important docs from the home office and couldn’t wait until a reasonable hour. I sealed my fate by hitting the send/receive button. There it was in plain sight, harmless in nature, yet powerful in its ability to lure me in for a closer look, YOUR EMAIL! … I read the whole thing and now my eyes are burning… I will attempt the impossible, the ole return to bed after getting a drink at 5 AM, then reading a 3,000-word email.” - J.C.
BB: See, C.N., some people do read. They might imagine lady bar touts and drug dealers loitering in their apartments, but they do read. By the way, like zebra mussels slowly spreading throughout a lake and disrupting otherwise decent habitat, the lady bar touts have now crept onto Sanlitun South and spread their annoyingness as far down as Gongti South. Six people accosted me as I walked from Pink Loft to Beer Mania at 7:30 PM. Can nothing stop them?
Email: “Maggie’s had better get back to 20 yuan on a bottle of beer or I am boycotting! Please note my displeasure if possible in your next column. We all have to do our bit to fight inflation and a 50 percent price increase is unreasonable in these hard times.” - E.O.
BB: Jacking up bottled beer prices by 10 kuai is annoying, but the bigger problem for Maggie’s is its declining relevance. On occasion, having a few Qingdao, listening to a song spectrum that spans My Humps to Paradise City, watching foreign man/Mongolian woman joint ventures unfold, and gorging on a hot dog out front might be fun, but the new Maggie’s is more sterile and, at least for me, there are simply too many other good nightlife options now.
FLIPPANT FESTIVAL FOOTNOTES
I went to the Beijing Pop Festival in Chaoyang Park two weeks ago and happily found proletarian beer prices: 4 yuan for a can of Blue Diamond. As for the bands, CJ was OK, Supergrass was Supergood, and Sebastian Bach should not wear a bright yellow Mandarin robe as it makes him look like an over-rouged blond-maned tranny with a cultural identity crisis. Other observations: I bought my official ticket not from a booth, not from a table, but from a silver gray Elantra. The security included PLA-looking guards, bao-an in poorly fitting uniforms, and secret service guys in dark suits, and I wondered what they thought about Bach swearing, screaming, prancing about stage and throwing microphone stands into the wings. The fans drank responsibly and behaved, with the most blatant sign of alcohol being the very relaxed guy with a pup tent and a small table holding four glasses of tequila. The music is rock, not pop, and anyway, if the promoters want to get out the locals, why not splash out for some act that was popular in the eighties band and has plenty of KTV standards, such as Whitney Houston or Air Supply? Pizza by the slice should be a given at these things. Discovery of the day: that my friend’s wife used to play in a Japanese band that did Skid Row covers!
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
FACE: The Beijing branch of Face opened a month ago and complements its brethren in Shanghai, Jakarta and Bangkok. Just south of Workers’ Stadium in a refurbished school, this is a pleasant if pricey place to while away a few hours. Decorated with art and antiquities from Asia, it will take time for Face to acquire the necessary scuffs for the worn-in look, and friends who frequent the Shanghai branch find this one far less architecturally impressive. Seating options include a long narrow dimly lit deck outside and plenty of nooks and crannies inside. A pool table and bar break up what might otherwise come off as an overly stuffy environment. On a Saturday night, tolerably loud house music played as the wait staff efficiently made drinks for a fairly well dressed and generally older crowd. An ice-filled stainless steel beer held the beer and Mojito ingredients were ready to go should an order come in. M-Dawg gave a thumbs-up to the cocktails, though my dry martini came without the twist I requested, and a martini on an earlier visit was sub-par. They are expensive at 60-70 kuai, not including an annoying 10 percent service charge, and a pint of Carlsberg comes in at 49 kuai. Overall, Face offers decent drinks, ambience and service (though teetering toward overly keen at times), but at these prices, this place is likely to be an irregular stop.
A-CHE: The neon Che Guevara profile at the door suggests something revolutionary inside, but this place delivers the same mediocrity found elsewhere in Beijing. The place itself gives a good first impression, striking one as cozy and warm, as the sort of spot that could become your local pub with its standup bar, table seating and big screen. Unfortunately, some problems on the service side need to be overthrown. On my first visit, the staff seemed bothered that we even ordered food. Then again, perhaps it was a subtle warning, given that the tapas included a firm white substance that defined blandness and was apparently cheese. On my second visit, the Parma ham salad came with incredibly fatty meat, off-the-shelf olives, canned tuna, under-ripe tomatoes, and a 55-kuai price tag that would have been fairer with the first “5” removed. The food, thus, needs some work. The drinks, however, are definitely worth a try. There are plenty of Cuban specialties and the efficient bartender whipped up a refreshing golden Mojito (Y35), made with orange juice and mint. Unfortunately, his helper stood nearby eating peanuts (mouth wide open), staring blankly at customers and seemingly unaware of the art of removing empty glasses. Then, oddly, A-Che offered me a VIP card. What would that get me? Another green tomato slice? The chance to toss whole lemons into the bar helper’s gaping keghole? It seems to me that this place should first learn to handle non-important people. Anyway, despite all these criticisms, I have hope for A-Che. Some staff training and a rethink of the menu would go a long way to turning that hope into reality. In the meantime, this place is still worth a visit to try some cocktails.
HAPPEN STUFF
Cafe Pause will feature German music and Jagermeister cocktails on September 23 (8 PM on), and co-owner Stefan Fleischer is offering a free shooter to anyone wearing Leiderhosen. / Crowne Plaza Hotel’s Champagne Bar has “bubbles for babes” every Thursday from 9 PM, with free Van Gogh vodka cocktails and Champagne cocktails for women. / Zeta Bar starts with “z,” which apparently requires the Hilton Hotel’s zany marketers to zealously use this zippy letter a zillion times (yes, I can do it, too). Thus, the bar has half off martinis on Mondaze, two-for-one Zeta-themed cocktails on Tuesdays, and 50 percent off Whizky on Wednesdays, all before 9 PM. There’s Champagne and Zequins (sequins? sea queens? segues?) on Thursday, with two-for-one Moet Chandon for ladies from 6 PM to midnight, and half off select bottles from 9 PM to midnight on Pingzi Fridays. By the way, if you have not checked out Zeta, the decor alone is worth the trip. / The wine will flow free courtesy of Summergate at that’s Beijing’s five-year anniversary and starving artists’ party at C5 Gallery (2-6 PM), between Peter Pan and Serve the People in Sanlitun. The event will include performances by Panjir Trio and Ah-Q, with the latter about to release its first CD. / Jebsen will hold a tasting of six Rosemount wines on September 23 at Stone Boat (7-9 PM, 100 kuai). Ethan Perk, formerly with Montrose, has joined Jebsen as deputy general manager. / YPHH and The Tree will hold a Belgian beer night on September 26 on the Youyi Hostel terrace (6:30-11 PM; 100 kuai YPHH members, 150 kuai non-members). / China World Hotel and Torres team up on September 28 for a five-course gourmet dinner, by Aria Chef de Cuisine Nicholas Blaira, paired with Peter Lehmann wines (888 kuai). / ASC Fine Wines has a full slate of wine tasting events, including a Penfolds dinner at Garden of Delights (October 13), a Skalli dinner at Aria (October 18) and a Bollinger dinner at Jaan, Raffles (October 24; 988 kuai). / Montrose sent me emails about a Herradura tequila launch party at China Lounge and a wine club event on September 21, but I was unable to access the company’s Web site (www.montrosechina.com).
CLOSING SHOTS
City Weekend has published a Restaurant & Bar Guide that not only is good, but also is free! I have long griped about City Weekend, including to the managing editor, who is no doubt tired of my free “constructive” criticism whenever I run into him in the local bars. Happily, the guide and the magazine’s recent design upgrade deserve praise as a major step in the right direction, though the content still needs a boost, something I am told is forthcoming. The guide itself includes useful lists such as “Where you drink if you are a sport fanatic” (Goose and Duck, Pavillion, Bar Blu) and “Over 30… but not over the hill” (Browns, Q Bar, Suzie Wong, East Shore Live Jazz), as well as nightlife itineraries for couples and singles. / I am again delaying my review of the Wine and Spirits Education Trust class I attended late last month, mainly because I’m too swamped to transcribe my notes, but I do hope to have it and the long overdue review of Bed next issue. / Last year, that’s Beijing organized a Christmas funk party to raise money for a heart operation for an orphan named Tian Yue. Unfortunately, the Scrooge-like venue undermined the magazine’s Santa-like intentions, and the call went out for donations. Several newsletter readers helped out, including Agent Hidden Dragon and K-Ro, and will be happy to know that I attended Tian Yue’s birthday party last week and found her healthy, happy and, since she was recently adopted, about to move to the U.S. and start a new life. / Whether you are hanging out in Beijing or heading out of the city, have a safe and happy holiday. Eat, Drink and Be Merry. Cheers, BB.
