Beijing Boyce

After the Australia-South Africa wine tasting last Saturday night, The Flash and I perused Super Bar Street. There is no shortage of venues - Afro Arena, Shamba, Back Street Club, Lakeland, Beach Bar, Escape, Qiu’s Roast Oyster, the 5:19 (re-opened by new management), Pili Pili, and - what sounds like a great name for a hotpot restaurant - Boiling Tribe (100 C) Club, among others. We decided to check the German restaurant Wirtshaus an see, which The Flash translated to as “Inn by the Lake.”

This is the only place I have seen with Flensburger Gold pilsener. The Flash notes that Flensburger is a northern German city and famous as the spot where traffic violation records are maintained. You might lose your heart in San Francisco, but if you’re German, you’ll lose your license in Flensburger. Wirtshaus an see also offers Bitburger (RMB25 for .25 L, RMB35 for .5 L) and Weihenstepan (RMB40 for .5 L)

This restaurant is large and airy with comfortable chairs in groups of four to eight. We were the lone customers. The floor manager was polite, efficient and spoke German.

The place has potential, but needs to get over the “too” syndrome - too much dressing on the salad (kidney beans, corn, lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, carrot and mushrooms), too much pepper and salt on the seared tuna, and too much time spent by the burger on the grill (translation: it was dry). On a positive note, the baked potato and the French fries were decent, and The Flash found his rump steak to be pretty good and cooked to medium as ordered.

By the way, is it me or is traffic finally starting to pick up on Super Bar Street? If there were ever a street that should be cobble-stoned, studded with trees and made pedestrian-only in this city, this would rank among the top contenders (I’m also thinking of the small pond behind Pili Pili which, if properly cleaned up, could become a mini-Houhai).

This is the first in a series of posts on four places projected to open over the next few months. Tomorrow: the new China Doll.

(Photos: The Legation Quarter)

I had yet to enjoy watching the New York Giants beat the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl, I remained unaware that the Black Eyed Peas provide the ideal beat for apartment cleaning, and I could still fit into my good black jeans - all these things were true when The Legation Quarter, the most anticipated food and beverage project in this city, was first scheduled to open more than a year ago.

How times have changed.

I toured The Legation Quarter last week and ran into the man most associated with the project, Handel Lee (Three on the Bund, The Courtyard, RBL), who outlined several buildings before marketing director Lulu Liu took over. Word is that some venues will open in mid-May (see below).

The Legation Quarter is big and, in many ways, beautiful, so in the words of BEP, “Let’s get it started.”

Like many of Lee’s projects, this venue is laden with history. According to the company brochure, five of the Legation Quarter’s buildings date from 1903 and were built to house the U.S. Embassy during the waning years of the Qing Dynasty. The 170,000-square-foot space later served as the Dalai Lama’s residence, a state guest house, and Ministry of Foreign Affairs offices. Additional buildings and an underground space have been added to house a club, a bar, and other establishments.

Here’s a lineup of some key projects.

Projected opening: mid-May

- Maison Boulud (back center in image above), “a French concept restaurant by award-winning chef Daniel Boulud from New York,” according to the brochure. The ground floor includes a bar, lounge and main dining room; the second floor, accessible by two staircases, holds smaller dining rooms.

- The Legation Center for the Arts (right front), which will host exhibitions, film programs and lectures. The rooftop offers good views of the old post office and train station as well as Tiananmen.

Projected opening: mid-June

- Mission (right top), the 1400-square-meter nightclub portion of Legation Quarter, which will include a lounge, VIP rooms and deck space. Lee says that a New York-London outfit is handling the project. The brochure says Mission “is sure to blaze a trail across the sky of Beijing’s nightlife” (let’s hope they have fire extinguishers).

- Teatro (right middle), an Italian restaurant; this building will include a wine cellar and a shop that sells bread, cheese, olive oil, and other goods.

Projected opening: mid-July

- Shiro Matsu (left top), a Japanese restaurant.

- Tian Di Yi Jian (left bottom, barely in image), a Chinese restaurant “embedded” in a furniture showroom.

The Legation Quarter will also include a 650-square-meter underground theater.

This project is ambitious and, given the delays, obviously not an easy one to complete. I have no idea about the rent, but large expatriate kitchen staffs do not come cheap. Maison Boulud seems especially promising as it could become a must visit for US business and government delegations, among others. The Legation Quarter has potential for event launches, weddings and so on. It’s hard to say how many people will come for, say, Italian or Japanese food, but I guess individual vendors will shoulder at least some of the responsibility of bringing in patrons.

A cutaway of Maison Boulod