Beijing Boyce

The Beijing outlet of wine bar chain Enoteca closed for renovations almost as soon as it opened a few weeks ago in The Place, but the vino is again flowing. Enoteca offers about 100 wine options, food, and good views of that massive sky screen.

Paddy O’Shea’s has joined the brain-teasing brigade by holding a weekly quiz every Wednesday at 8 PM. Each round will see prizes, ranging from a RMB300 gift certificate to A-Che to RMB1200 worth of “golf simulation” (you’ll need to ask Paddy’s Gleann Phealan about that one). The top five teams will reap their rewards in beverages.

The bar previously known as L’Etage, just around the corner from Le Bistrot Parisienne in Tongli Studio, is under renovation and will re-open as Second Floor. I’ll have more on this soon.

China Doll (3.3 building) will start a happy hour on July 14 - expect two-for-one cocktails from 6 to 9 PM.

The Shunyi outlet of blue frog is open from 10 AM until late (management informs that the mall doors close at 10 PM and thus patrons need to be inside Europlaza by then if they plan to stick around). The Sanlitun outlet is “coming soon.”

For each of the 88 days until the 2008 Olympics, I will [try to] strip-mine my brain to unearth a thought related to Beijing and The Games. That’s one thought per brain cell. It’s called teamwork, people!

Today we have a “guest thought” brought to you by S. Schwankert:

“There has never been a better time for local bars to push domestic booze than the Olympics. With a flood of first-time visitors about to hit Beijing, why not capitalize by using local spirits in new, Games-only cocktails? Sure, Erguotou is the whipping booze of many foreign aficionados, but now is the time to mix it with, well, something else and taste the results, then serve up the best as drink specials.

“Some Beijing beverages will be a far easier sell, namely local beers and wines. The Olympics is perhaps the best opportunity that these China-made products have ever had to gain new customers, as they will be a lower-priced alternative to foreign brands, and visitors will be more open to “tasting China” than they would be even at a themed event in their home country. Think globally, drink locally.

Previously
Thought 1: If they build it, we may come
Thought 2: “Whether or not” in Sanlitun
Thought 3: Living the lowlife on Lotus Lane
Thought 4: The F&B scene takes a pre-Olympics breather?
Thought 5: Flaming Fuwa
Thought 6: Continental drink
Thought 7: The Parallel Bars?
Thought 8: No kangaroos, and other guidelines
Thought 9: A few good men
Thought 10: Someone call programming
Thought 11: Going, going, gone

Here’s an update on my “scorpions on a stick” media monitoring project (for full details, see: On a stick? In Beijing? No way!).

Category: I would have put the scorpions at number 6

Candidate: Alan Paul, NBC

Clip:

After dark, Wangfujing, the busy commercial street located just Northeast of Tiananmen Square, becomes a bustling, wild and wooly food market, populated by individual vendors selling everything from deep fried scorpions and sparrows on a stick to lamb kebabs. And that’s not to mention cicadas, grasshoppers, stinky tofu, quail’s eggs and strawberry kebabs.

Comment: The story is titled, “Beijing after dark: Five things to do at night in China’s capital.” It begins, “Open any guidebook and you can pretty quickly find the main tourist sites in China’s capital city. But dig a little deeper, and you can find plenty of experiences that will make your visit truly memorable.”

Thanks Buddha that NBC is here to “dig a little deeper” and let us know that, in addition to eating scorpions on a stick, visitors can also: get a massage, go to an acrobatic show, visit Houhai, and take a pedicab ride around The Forbidden City. Ha, you pesky guidebook writers, you just got owned (not really)!