Beijing Boyce

The Beijing branch of Pantry Magic will open tomorrow afternoon in New Nali Studio, says Robert Esser of the company.

Staff stacked the shelves today with utensils, pots and pans, cast iron grills, fondue sets, and lots more. Cheese lovers will have a choice of cutting boards and more than a dozen specialized knives. I liked the handy oven mitt shown below, which Esser says is the company’s top-selling item and will retail for about 85 kuai.

And it doubles as a puppet.

Pantry Magic is on the first floor.

Not content with our Sunday tour, Special K and I headed out again Wednesday night. Here’s the lowdown.

The Noodle Bar
1949: The Hidden City is livening up, with four venues open (Sugar, Noodle Bar, Duck de Chine, and 1/5 Taverna) and two more to come (Well Bar and 1/5 “lounge loft”).

Noodle Bar has a dozen seats and tight Spartan layout, with a sliding door, a three-sided stainless steel  counter, and an open kitchen.

The noodles start at 28 kuai and are hand-pulled on the spot. Patrons can choose thick or thin with beef brisket, tendon, tripe, or vegetables.

We tried two side dishes - cucumbers with garlic and green beans with preserved vegetables (both 11 kuai) - and found them OK.

The noodles with beef brisket were another story. Expect a hearty portion with excellent broth that you can season with sliced spring onions, roasted garlic bits, cilantro, hot-pepper paste, sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, and salt. Special K said this would be a great late night meal (Noodle Bar is currently open until 9 PM) washed down with big bottles of beer (only 300 ML bottles of Tsing-dao currently available). This would also work well as a quick lunch.

Two downsides of the visit: 1) an aggressive staff that interrupted our talk every two to three minutes (the place is tiny enough that it should be obvious if patrons want to buy more side dishes, etc); 2) a 10-percent service charge.

Nanjie
We passed a new night club called, well, Night Club west of Regal Club and south of Revelations. Expect a three-story warped and gleaming silver façade embedded with strings of pulsing neon light, what look like huge papier-mâché carnations, and two signs - one with a pink, orange and yellow alien leaning on a speaker, the other for Chivas.

Speaking of Regal Club, they might want to edit their sign out front, unless they really do want to promote an “over-valued” menu.

And speaking of signs, this “French Snail” sign at the New Nali Studio isn’t much better:

Back to Nanjie - some love it, some hate it, and I like it. With a bar and dance floor downstairs, a lounge area upstairs, and a wraparound balcony, it has something for most everyone and is a handy low-end getaway. Special K tried the Mojito - which he liked much better after adding more sugar - and we watched the street action (note: Salsa Caribe is busy on Wednesdays).

The Tree
As we passed The Rickshaw on our way to Sanlitun North, we saw a thin powerful green beam passing just above our heads. We thought it came from the street corner, but followed it to New Nali Studio before it suddenly disappeared. Weird. Anyone know what that was all about?

As usual, the “lady bar” touts were out in force and, on this night, invading the Tongli studio area. Where are those police dogs when you need them?

Special K convinced me to try a Morel’s passion fruit beer at The Tree and its sour wallop refreshed us. By the way, the waitress in our section efficiently took orders, cleaned dishes, and dealt with the demands of what must have been about 30 foreigners. She didn’t ooze happiness, but did her job and provided the usual good service that brings me back to The Tree.

As we headed home, we noticed a chalkboard outside Ciro’s Pomodoro advertising a nightly happy hour (8:30-9:30 PM), with 40 percent off cocktails, buy-one-get-one-free beer and “shoters”, and “disco music”. This follows up the place’s other recent promotional effort - blasting far-too-loud music onto the street.