Beijing Boyce

Dead Ren Ale?

Ever wanted to create your own beer but were too lazy (or drunk) to do anything more than come up with a name?

Then this contest is for you.

Leave a comment with your name for a Beijing- or China-themed beer and you’ll be entered into a draw for 12 pints of home brew and RMB400 of food at The Saddle Cantina.

Even better, Saddle will name its next batch in honor of you.

• Black Lung Lager, in honor of the city’s air quality?
• Beijing 1.2, a low-alcohol brew that serves as a tribute to the city’s taxis?
• Den Ren Ale, a take off on the Dead Guy Ale seen all over Beijing?

That’s all there is to it. Remember, names should have something to do with Beijing or China, and should be in good, uh, taste. The deadline is Friday, November 14 at 5:30 PM; winner to be announced Monday, November 17.

By the way, look for the guys behind The Saddle Cantina to open a new burrito joint a stone’s throw away in a few weeks. Patrons will be able to choose from a handful of burrito wraps and their own fillings. More details soon.

Journalist Paul Mooney did the honors of overseeing the draw for the Name That TUN contest: He witnessed the recording of participants’ names on paper slips, the scrunching of those papers, and their placement in a bowl. He then closed his eyes and picked two. A lengthy but necessary process to ensure fairness.

First, the winner of the DJ set, who receives a lesson from Acupuncture Records to prep for his 80-minute 80s-music set at TUN. He also gets a private area at TUN, stocked with four bottles of gin and vodka from Strait, for 12 friends.

The winner is: Danger Boy!

Next, the winner of four bottles of  Strait Twenty – two gin blends and two vodka blends.

The winner is: wine_cyclist!

Congratulations to both and thanks to everyone who participated. Danger Boy’s set is on November 22 and Acupuncture will add a funky eighties set while Strait offers deals on gin and vodka. I’ll have more details soon.

I’ll also have another “name that” contest up and running in about an hour.

I earlier wrote about service at Element Fresh, but 1) some readers report good times there, 2) I was in Sanlitun last night with major EF fan The Village Grouch, and 3) we were hungry. So, we decided to grab dinner there.

The staff – still a bit hyper for my taste – quickly seated us. With dim lighting and soft music, Element Fresh had an upscale feel. With half of the tables full, it had that pleasant murmur of diners talking. TVG quickly settled on a Cobb salad, while I picked an Asian set. So far, so good, but then we hit a snag – placing an order.

There were more than enough employees at the door, but pitifully few waiting on tables. TVG tried to flag a waitress a half-dozen times, twice caught her attention, and once got an “I’ll be there in two minutes” wave. Unfortunately, we waited quite a bit longer and, since we were hungry and worried that it might take even longer to get our food than to order it, we left.

I figured an employee might wonder why we were leaving without eating or if we were skipping out on the bill, but as TVG noted: “No one even acknowledged our existence.” Anyway, perhaps I have bad luck with Element Fresh or perhaps service isn’t a priority since the place is drawing big crowds. I don’t know…

On to plan B: we headed up the street to Luga’s Villa. Again, the staff quickly seated us. The yellows, oranges and woods of this place gave it warmth and, with a soccer team just leaving, about a dozen people chilled out. We ordered fajitas and soon had our drinks. So far, so good, but then we hit a snag – placing an order.

After a 15-minute wait, an inquiry by TVG revealed that our waitress forget to give the order to the kitchen. Now what? She headed off. Another waitress approached and said our food would be right down. Five minutes later the chef and two waiters arrived with our sizzling platters. Ten minutes later Luga came over and offered more wraps and dips. Quick recovery – and the fact we had drinks from the start made a difference.

(By the way, the fajitas are tasty.)

TVG summed up the night this way: “This is like a turnover in basketball. It looks like one team is going to score, then the other team grabs the ball and gets the two points instead. In other words, I expected that by now we would be spending money at Element Fresh but instead we are spending it here, and I’ll be back for more.”