Beijing Boyce

My weekly listing of wine events poses a couple of problems. First, it gets buried beneath a bunch of new posts within a few days. Second, I get event invites almost daily and want to pass the info along right away rather than wait for the next listing.

To deal with this, I’ve added a wine event listings page on sibling blog Grape Wall of China. You can find it in the right column, under “pages”, and it means I can update the listings as soon as I get the invites. (Case in point: I just added three free events that Top Cellar will hold in late October and November.)

As usual, if you intend to attend any listed events, it is best to confirm the details with the venue ahead of time. Also, if you want your wine event listed, send the details to beijingboyce@yahoo.com.

Finally, two quick plugs:

1. I have restarted the Friday Food Fight feature on Grape Wall of China. The deal: I suggest a food and readers suggest a wine to match it. This week’s candidate: hairy crabs!

2. I have a bunch of “Wine Word” interviews coming up, but for those interested in past posts, which include talks with local and global wine figures like Robert Joseph, Jeremy Oliver, Tyler Colman, Jancis Robinson, Wu Kegang, Don St. Pierre Jr., Frankie Zhao, and Ch’ng Poh Tiong, a partial list is here.

Drei Kronen 1308, which had its “soft” opening in August in China View, finally had its hard launch. I’ve written about the impressive design of this four-floor German brew pub, so a few impressions of the free-for-all at lunch today:

- Four beers on tap: wheat, lager, dark, and a special for Oktoberfest. They are tasty, indeed, but at RMB48 for a small mug (300 ML) and RMB58 for a large (500 ML), they’ll hit your bank balance. Best bet: the two-for-one happy hour, daily from 5 to 7 PM.

- Mountains of food: The fourth floor houses a massive kitchen that was put to good use. Sausages, sauerkraut, roast chicken, salads, tarts, breads, and on and on. Overall, the food is reliable and hearty, perfect fare to soak up beer, though again it is pricey.

- Oom-pah-pah music: The German band had plenty of pep though its attempts to get people to cheer, raise glasses, and sing along were largely futile given the general focus on packing away sausage and beer and chatting with neighbors. But the crowd and music did provide a good Oktoberfest vibe, one I hope is sustained over the next few weeks.

- Logistics: Usually halfway through these events, the place runs out of plates or cutlery, the buffet trays are reduced to a scrap or two of food, and the staff is stressed. Not today. The beer flowed, the kitchen staff regularly restocked the buffet, the staff remained friendly, and the management circulated to ensure all was OK. I’m guessing the lynch-pin is the three or four dumb waiters that send food hurtling down from the kitchen and dirty glasses, dishes, and cutlery hurtling up. A good system is worth its weight in beer.

All in all, the opening showed Drei Kronen can offer good beer, food, and service, and handle a big crowd. The big question: Are enough people in Beijing willing to pay these prices for it and thus fill this cavernous place? Oktoberfest will be the best chance for DK 1308 to prove itself and convince people to return as regular customers.