Beijing Boyce

Shops are opening left, right, and center in the Swire complex at the corner of Workers Stadium North and Sanlitun North. The prominent Adidas building sports four floors of gear on one side and a smattering of stores on the other (where the escalators take up way too much space and the highlight, at least today, is watching a worker randomly spray bug killer out of sheer boredom).

Moseying through the complex, I spotted Nike, Puma, Starbuck’s, Levi’s, North Face, Nautica and Birkenstock, among others, all of which should make for interesting comparison shopping with Yashow Market next door. No word yet on when blue frog or the new Hatsune will open.

Meanwhile, the street dividing Swire on one side from that strip of neon-lit copycat bars on the other now sports a four-foot-high lane divider. It extends north past the 3.3 Building. I’ll have more on this in a second post.

Look for Second Floor (formerly L’Etage) to open this Friday around the corner from Le Bistrot Parisienne in Tongli Studio. Cocktails are RMB35 to RMB40; bottled beer is RMB15 (Tsingtao) to RMB30-40 (Stella, Hoegaarden, Duvel). Co-owner Gin is a veteran of The Tree and was part of Shooters until the parting of ways. He’ll split time between The Tree and Second Floor, a venue I always thought perfect for a wine bar.

A sign at new Nali Studio states that Indian and Pakistani restaurant Mughal’s will open on the fourth floor. Meanwhile, the new Muse, in that long narrow white building between 3.3 and Nali, looks ready to go.

Are establishments rationing air conditioning to save money? I noticed today and yesterday that despite the muggy weather several Sanlitun spots had the windows wide open and the air con on minimum at best. Luckily, I stumbled into Nearby the Tree today: The air is cool, the Ricotta and spinach tortellini is spiced, and the music is chill (Reggae).

UPDATE: By the way, I’m the only customer at Nearby the Tree but the staff is too mesmerized with comic books to pay attention to me. I manage to attract a second customer, Special K, who orders a drink and a panini, thus interrupting the comic book reading. But no worries, the staff is soon back to page-turning and oblivious that it is possible to bring out the drink before the sandwich.