Beijing Boyce

Before going to Flo for lunch last week, The Flash and I visited The Wine Bank next door. The defining features are 14-foot ceilings, red brick walls, pine shelving and stone floors, with touches of glass, cast iron and gold trim. A second-floor alcove includes two sofas, while there are several tables up front if you want to park and try a bottle - after buying it, of course.

The Wine Bank has its share of tackiness - plastic plants, brick “wallpaper” pasted over cement in spots and the owner’s all-too-visible golf club collection. Even so, as The Flash says, “This is a nice place to have a seat and a bottle of wine.”

More than 80 percent of the wine on offer hails from Australia and includes labels such as Timber Ridge, Tallboy, Ferngrove, Plantagenet, Peel, and Just Red.

The Wine Bank is open from 11 AM to 9 PM, with free parking out front. It’s a convenient place to drop by and pick up a few bottles and, according to one employee, more branches are planned.

While The Tree is famous for pizza, sibling restaurant Nearby the Tree aims to make it big with pasta. The chilled-out second floor offers table seating, lounge areas, and an open kitchen (note: if you’re seeking a wireless signal, it’s strongest in the bar downstairs).

I had ricotta and spinach tortellini in spicy tomato sauce (RMB50). Homemade and tasty, the pasta is perfectly bite-sized. The only downside is that I easily could have eaten more and that there was a lot of leftover sauce. Easy solution: provide more bread - I only got two small pieces - thus providing more filler and ensuring that spicy sauce is mopped up.

By the way, the menu lists plenty of Belgian beers, including Leffe, Chimay and Waterloo Tripel, with prices starting at RMB45 and topping out at RMB 1405-165 for the 750 ML specialty beers. De Koninck, Hoegaarden and Beamish are available on tap for RMB40-50.