Beijing Boyce

File: Better late than never?

Let’s say you have a group of six colleagues in Central Park who want to go out for after-work drinks. And that four of them want wine and two want beer. Until now, that meant skipping Enoteca (map) in The Place.

For some reason, and despite suggestions, Enoteca has steadfastly refused to add even a single beer to its menu, thus losing business from not only those two beer fans above but also their four wine-drinking co-workers Until now. New manager Tomas Hladnik, formerly the rep for Strait vodka, says Stella will be available from Monday.

Even better, during August, Enoteca is offering a 50 percent discount on all food, including tapas, pastas, and a new selection of sandwiches and salads.

Enoteca is a cozy enough, with sofa and bar seating, and the range of wines – most imported by the owners – is decent, though it can be hit and miss. Perhaps the addition of this food special and beer option will finally bring in the traffic hoped for since the opening.

See also: Sips and bites, extended play: Tim’s, Kro’s, Luga’s, Enoteca, Nanjie, Tun, and more

Maison Boulud: Drink or meal?

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I stopped by Legation Quarter (map), now known as Chi’enmen 23, for a few cocktails on my way to Sanlitun last night. At Maison Boulud, I skipped my usual spicy Project 23 and refreshing Bourbon Iced Tea – the latter is not listed on the menu, which I find odd given this is a perfect summer drink – and tried a cocktail that includes “five spices“. I found it too heavy and the flavors too muddied, though the humid weather might have been a factor. After I noted this to the affable guy behind the bar – Jackie – he made me a Frescoe Martini. Kumquat-infused rum with lime, litchi, and strawberry – this was refreshment.

These cocktails are not cheap. The two I tried are listed at RMB72, though they come to RMB75.6 after the annoying 5 percent service charge (seriously, just make it RMB75 or RMB76, give the staff its cut, and save us all the hassle). But they are good value, given the surroundings and that the drink came with a bowl of cashews and some other snacks.

I then went to Agua, via Hex – I still think this place looks like a cross between a futuristic beehive and a high-end hostess bar – where I parked myself at the bar. I tried the Purple Love – muddled red grapes with gin, lemon juice, and lemon peel. I found it well-blended and smooth, in contrast to the cloying descriptions of the drinks on the menu.

I prefer the glassware here to Maison Boulod, where it is elegant but lacks proper weight. As for vibe, while Maison Boulud is staid – think of a private club where Mr. Burns of The Simpsons might feel comfy – Agua has the rattle and hum of the kitchen and crowd to provide background noise. Which one is best? It depends on your mood.

And what is the price of Purple Love? RMB82 – RMB16 discount + 10% service charge = RMB73. Well, at least they round things off to the nearest kuai. I didn’t make it to Fez, upstairs from Agua, this time around, but will soon…

Two other places I have grabbed drinks lately:

Q Bar (map): The new deck, despite being bigger, is much more intimate and the soundproofing means it is open later. There is also a bar outside as well as a kiosk where the staff can punch in drink orders and thus allow the bartenders inside to get a head start. A strong point of Q Bar is consistency, no easy feat, though at RMB60 per martini the prices approach that of The Legation Quarter.

Fubar (map): For mixed drinks, this place is hard to beat. A 50 ml pour of 42 Below vodka (five flavours available), Bombay Sapphire gin, or Havana 3 is RMB30 with mixer. The cocktails are decent, which is a pleasant surprise given how long the place has been open, and tend to be RMB50. The vibe? With Fubar only open 10 days, that is still to be determined. On my visits, I have found a diverse crowd of three dozen men and women, a handful of guys giving public descriptions of the adventures of their privates, and a soccer-fan heavy crowd. Still, for those seeking solid mixed drinks at low prices, this is a place to be.

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In Solana (map), the newest branch of Banana Leaf has had at least a kick-off party – I will pop out there soon to see if the place is fully up and running. And in what would fit neatly into the file, “I didn’t see that one coming,” word has is that Italian football brand AC Milan is likely to take over Tsingtao Beer Garden. (Hat tip to The French .) Speaking of Solana, has anyone tried La Pizza? I am hearing good things about this place. And speaking of football, two Italian teams will be in town in early August to play in the Bird’s Nest. See this post for related food deals, and ticket and jersey giveaways, at Piazza Italia (map).

The Apartment, a bar converted to provide the feel of an apartment, complete with kitchen, living room, deck, and lounge, is taking shape. The idea is to start off with several dozen “founding members“, each of whom can invite guests, each of whom can later be voted in by the current members. More details on this soon…

Meanwhile, word is the food and beverage empire Lugatopia will add another world cuisine to its reaches by opening a Thai spot above Luga’s Villa (map).

Union Bar & Grille (map) is offering a bar snacks menu from today at 4 PM (see photo above). It includes mozzarella sticks, pale ale battered onion rings with creamy horseradish sauce, homemade nachos with avocado, black beans, beef,  and more, and, my favorite, a spinach and artichoke dip served in a “bread bowl” (you scoop the dip out with pieces of baguette and then eat the bowl for good measure). Union is also planning a weekly all-you-can-eat southern fried chicken buffet with mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, and corn on the cob. Also of note: pints of Guinness draft are two for RMB50 during happy hour, daily from 5 PM to 8 PM. This place is rapidly improving from its toaster-gate and coffee-gate days.

A scene on the fifth ring road (I couldn’t hear the conversation, so am guessing as to its content)…

Security guy: Hey, you can’t park your horse here! Move it!

Standing guy: You must be joking. We chose this spot because it offers maximum distribution of our produce with minimal interference of traffic.

Reclining guy:  Yes, silly man. And this is actually research – part of our plan to write a superior treatise to “Let Us Speak of the Philosophic Questions of Selling Watermelons in Big Cities” by Chou Hsin-li.

Security guy: Chou Hsin-Li, Chou Schmin Li. Move that horse or else!

Standing guy: Or else? To borrow a proverb, “power comes out the barrel of a gun,” not from the end of a finger, no matter how much you wag it.

Reclining guy: And might I add that your nails are filthy? If, as they say in the West, “cleanliness is next to godliness,” you are clearly next to atheism.

Security guy: Ha, I’m back! Now it is four against two. Move that horse!

Standing guy: You realize the issue is not the horse but your desire to cover up general feelings of impotence by forcing others to do your bidding, no matter how menial the task. A classic case of “transference” or “covering one’s own ears while stealing a bell.”

Reclining guy: You further fail to consider the havoc our horse might wreak should we utter a command and have it send your colleagues scurrying. “When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter,” it is said, and, yes, that is also a slight toward your uniforms. Sooooo psuedo-establishment…

Security guy: Big words! But we have bigger numbers. Now move that horse!

Standing guy: They say “The wise adapt themselves to circumstances, as water moulds itself to the pitcher” and so we shall move 20 meters up this street and beyond your puny jurisdiction.

Reclining guy: But we shall do so not out of fear but because your woefully inept group is increasing in size and creating a far bigger traffic issue than did we.

Security guy: Good riddance!

Standing guy: My friend, “Distance tests a horse’s strength. Time reveals a person’s character.”

Reclining guy: And we hope that over the coming hours, days, and weeks, you will reflect on your behavior and realize that the mileage accumulated by you and your colleagues due to this episode is a hundredfold of what we have totalled. In other words, FAIL.

And with that, they did move 20 meters up the road and continued to sell their watermelons….

Nashville (map) has long featured one of the best single malt selections in Beijing and now regular reader Mr Miyagi adds that it also offers excellent value during the daily two-for-one happy hour, from 5 PM to 8 PM.

This includes 30-year-old single malts, with a pair of pours – that Mr Miyagi describes as being of a a “decent” size – costing RMB280 for Laphroig or Bowmore or RMB260 for Highland or Glenfiddich. At the cheaper end of the list, two pours of Glenfiddich 12-year old cost RMB45, while Talisker 18-year-old is RMB120. Also of note, two Johnnie Walker Black cost RMB40, while Jim Beam will set up back RMB35.

The birth of a bar in six photos, but first…

Fubar (map) held its Feta Opening last Friday night and a dangerous place is this given the generous pours in its RMB30 mixed drinks and that it stands a five-minute walk from my apartment. Kudos to the staff for doing an above-average job, especially as some had little cocktail-making experience. In fact, Bob and Ariel of “Spirit It” were in Fubar a few days earlier teaching them some tricks of the trade. There were a few glitches – the mint ran out as people jumped on the Mojito special and there was a musical gap early on during the shift from laptop to turntables – but overall this opening went smoother than most and attracted a diverse crowd. The best part is that some other bars might take the Fubar lead and provide better liquor at better prices.

In any case, I have come to know Lager well since his days at The Rickshaw and Tun. And since, as mentioned, I live nearby, I have been taking photos of the bar’s development from empty shell to fully furnished “speak easy”. Here are six of them…

June 1 ~ Under renovation: Lager and Zhang discuss jacuzzi placement while workers push down part of a wall.

June 16 ~ Taking shape: With the drywall up, it'll soon be time to get down.

June 18 ~ Designing men: Zhang checks the bar layout while Lager ponders keeping the scaffolding as a decorative touch.

July 8 ~ Adding color: With the walls painted, the grey brick wall up, and the bar and beer tap in place, it's getting close to happy hour.

July 20: The staff, seats, and booze are ready, putting the place in unofficial pre-super soft opening mode.

July 24 ~ Serving time: The drinks flowed last Friday.

Look for the Goose and Duck to move to new digs closer to its old location at Chaoyang Park. Owner John Harkness says the new place, like the original, will be in a standalone building and should be open for business in a few months. This will be good news for those who enjoyed the old spot, and the late-night option it provided for those partying at the park, but found the new place a bit isolated.

(Hat tip to The French Connection.)

Upscale membership-based restaurant and bar M1NT, with China branches in Hong Kong and Shanghai, is slated to open in Beijing on New Year’s Eve* on the third and fourth floors of the Yintai building that houses the Park Hyatt.  The place is expected to occupy about 1500 square meters and provide views of the CCTV Tower and, barring demolition, charred remains of the Mandarin Hotel.

According to one member, M1NT Beijing plans to have HK$48 million in equity, with HK$4 million set for pre-opening costs and HK$28 million for refurbishment and development. That sounds like a whole lot of shark tanks (I can hear The Village Grouch grinding, or snapping, his teeth at this very moment).

* Anyone want to start a pool on when the place actually opens?

(Hat tip to the Man of Mystery.)

The second branch of Salud opened in Sanlitun North last night and the drink specials – and in some cases freebies – on pastis and beer continue tonight and tomorrow. And there is always those home-made rums. The new Salud is across from Tongli Studio and just down from Luga’s.

Fubar (map) holds its Feta Opening tonight, with a free glass of sparkling wine for the first 50 attendees. (By the way, sibling establishment Stadium Hot Dog has been attracting quite a few comments. Who knew wieners could be so controversial?)

Sequoia Cafe (map) holds an Australia versus American beer smack-down tonight at 6:30 PM. The RMB100 fee gets you a wheat beer and a lager from each country as well as hot dogs. RSVP with Frank at 13701-178-073.

Electronic label Shanshui Records joins DJ Wordy tonight for a night of music at Obiwan (map).

Meanwhile, for “electro-violinist” fans – Sun Lu and Xie Ting perform this Saturday at Scarlett (map) wine bar. Patrons get their first drink free; Grey Goose is RMB688 per bottle; violins are extra.

While the SALT (map) chef master classes are booked for August, a few seats are open for this Saturday. Class starts at 9:30 AM and Ana Esteves will, according to the promo, “guide you though mise en place, preparation, cooking techniques, flavour matching and plate presentation of four courses. A recipe pack covering dishes in the lesson and wine pairing, SALT Apron and T-Shirt are included.” The cost is RMB588. To RSVP, call 6437-8457.

And looking ahead for football fans…

Next week, three Premier League teams – Hull City, West Ham, Tottenham Hotspur – will join local Beijing Guoan to play for the Barclays Asia Trophy. The matches run from July 29 to July 31 in Workers Stadium. See more details here.

And Inter Milan and S.S. Lazio will play on August 8 at the Bird’s Nest. From August 1 to 6, people who spend RMB50 at Piazza Italia (map) will be eligible to win tickets to the match (one ticket will be given out each day). And from August 7 to 16, the draw will be for signed jerseys and footballs. Players will attend some events at Boscolo on the third floor. And all three levels of Piazza Italia will show the match on August 8. For more info, contact Stacey Choe at stacey.choe (at) asia-businessgroup.com.

Nanluguoxiang-based Salud opened its second branch in Sanlitun tonight. Expect a tight fight in this long and narrow spot, though it offers the same friendly bar staff and homemade rums of the original. Look for beers at RMB15 for Tsingtao, RMB20 for Bud, RMB25 for Corona, and RMB40 for Duvel, with mixed drinks at RMB30 to RMB40. The three-day opening includes bargain basement-priced, or in some cases free, beer and pastis. More tomorrow…

The classic Swiss opening

Fubar (map) is holding its “soft opening” this Friday.

Soft openings, hard openings, pre-openings, official openings… Isn’t it time we brought some sense and fun to the concept of just how open is a bar, restaurant, or hotel? One way to do this is a cheese scale. For example:

• Soft opening: The Brie
• Semi-soft opening: The Mozzarella or The Feta
• Hard opening: The Cheddar or The Swiss
• Very hard opening: The Parmesan

I would argue the Fubar opening is The Feta. It’s not soft, like The Brie, because the place has been serving drinks for five days, and it’s not hard, like The Cheddar, because it needs fine-tuning in terms of decor, drink selection, and so on.

For even greater accuracy, we could adopt the Mohs scale. Although it pertains to the hardness of minerals, it could be adapted to bar openings. I suggest using the chart on this Wikipedia page, which ranks hardness from 1 to 10.

Thus, a bar that is open but not actively seeking customers might rank as “talc“, while on the other end of the scale, a place that is totally fully completely ready and open for business would rank as “diamond.” Here is the scale:

1. Talc
2. Gypsum
3. Calcite
4. Fluorite
5. Apatite
6. Feldspar
7. Quartz
8. Topaz
9. Corundum
10. Diamond

Given this, I would rank the hardness of the Fubar opening this Friday as “feldspar.” In any case, things get under way at 6 PM. To get in, press the button on the wall to open the sliding door…

The city’s newest wiener joint – Stadium Hot Dog (map) – is opening in about an hour. The place fronts the recently opened “speak easy” Fubar and is at gate 10 of Worker’s Stadium (look for the Studio Coffee sign). Wiener lovers have their choice of beef hot dogs, Italian sausages, German-style bratwursts, and veggie dogs – all at RMB25 each – and can add from among several dozen toppings, including chili, sauerkraut, and numerous mustards for free. As for drinks, sodas are RMB10, Yanjing tall cans are RMB15, and Stella, Beamish, and other tall cans are RMB30.

See also: Make me one with everything: The hot dog scene in Beijing

A pair of incidents this past week made me think again about value-for-money drinks in Beijing…

One: A visit to The Beach (map) at Block 8 where a bottle of  mass-market Champagne and six tins of local beer cost ~RMB1000. Two: A visit to Fubar (map) where a gin tonic made with Bombay Sapphire cost RMB30.

Different people value different things when it comes to a night out. I don’t put much value in “see and be seen” spots, thus spending a grand to drink a bottle of bubbly served in scratched and scuffed plastic glasses and beer in plastic tumblers on this rooftop is not my thing. (By the way, the average squat-on-a-stool, three-kuai-per-big-bottle-of-Yanjing drink-in-the-street joint in Beijing has better glasses. Maybe The Beach is worried about getting broken glass in the sand, but surely there is an alternative to plastic glasses that look like they went through ten years of use at a summer cottage.)

Anyway, I value things such as an earthy atmosphere, a diverse clientele, and – because I lack unlimited money and a massive expense account – decent drinks at decent prices.

This brings me to the bubbly. Contrary to the pop of its cork, Champagne – as opposed to sparkling wine – generally offers the the smallest bang for the buck of any alcoholic beverage in town. If you are of my mindset, and find it ridiculous to spend ~RMB700 — a typical price at a bar or club — for a bottle of exceedingly average Champagne, here are other ways to spend that cash (I will use some of my favorite spots as examples):

• ~12-15 quality cocktails at Q Bar (map), either while sitting at the long bar or on the sofas inside, or on the new deck outside, which despite its size offers intimacy and no minimum table charge.
• ~10 cocktails at Maison Boulud (map), which makes some of the more interesting drinks in town, including what is among my friends the love-it-or-hate-it Project 23.
• ~20 beers such as James Boag’s or VB either inside or on the deck at Danger Doyle’s (map), at The Den (map), at The Stumble Inn (map), or elsewhere.
• ~3-4 bottles of quality wine from more than a half-dozen countries at the hutong-style Palette Vino (map) in Dongsishitiao.
• 2 bottles of Russian Standard vodka, with mixers, at Chocolate (map).
• 35 shots of homemade rum at Salud (map) in Nanluoguxiang. (Note: the second branch of Salud is slated to open in Sanlitun North, opposite Tongli Studio, later this week.)
  
• 23 gin tonics, made – as noted above – with Bombay Sapphire gin, at the new Fubar (map). Or ~13 Hendrick’s gin tonics for those who want to go upscale.
• ~235 big bottles of Yanjing, in a glass or from the bottle rather than from a scuffed plastic glass, at many of the squat-on-a-stool-outside joints in the city.

You could also go for cocktails at Ruby Khi, downstairs from The Beach. And in defense of The Beach, the place is simply passing on the outrageous price of even the low-end Champagne available in Beijing. If you like bubbles, and care about how much you spend, you are better off finding a sparkling wine you like from Italy, Spain, Australia, or any other number of places.

Or doing your Champagne drinking at Sunday brunches, such as The Westin on Financial Street, when you can stuff your face with food and booze for about half the price of a bottle of Mumm’s or Moet-Chandon at the average club or bar in this city…

Danger Doyle’s (map) made of mockery of quantum physics last Thursday when it aired test cricket on five screens and golf on the other two without tearing a hole in the fabric of the universe. (See also: Which is the most boring sport? Cricket or golf? by The Guardian. Hat tip to esskayroy.) The photo below shows how exciting one table of patrons found this sports combo. But seriously, there were about three dozen people who were intensely interested in the cricket, and I do find that guzzling Crown lager makes it much more palatable.

Personally, the only way to make The Ashes interesting – and let’s recall this is an event where after five days of play you can end up with no winner, and that there are five of those five-day matches – would be if:

• The event referred to the fact that the losing team gets cremated.
• The winner was decided via a best-of-seven Twenty20 series, a form of cricket that can be played in a few hours and involves plenty of big hits. (Also, think of the boost to the Australian and English economies if people were phoning in only for sick days, rather than sick weeks.)
• Each team included three celebrities of my choosing. These players would have to bat first and without helmets. The English would get Simon Cowell, Hugh Grant, and David Beckham (the latter has to bat blindfolded) while the Aussies would get Mel Gibson and any two members of Air Supply.

See also: Which is the most boring sport? Cricket or golf? by The Guardian (hat tip to esskayroy)

A cucumber sandwich and a double vodka soda, please...

Spoof publication The Onion has done a China edition and while it really doesn’t have much to do with the focus of this blog I thought I’d pass it along (hat tip to The Beijing Gourmand for the heads up). Some of the headlines:

• Potato-Faced Youngster Lauded For Memorizing Primitive 26-Character Alphabet
• Obama Axes Pentagon Plan To Build Billion Dollar Tank In Shape Of Dragon
• Table Tennis Star Wang Hao Out 4 Weeks With Sprained Knuckle
• Weakling President Asks Imaginary Man In Sky To Bless Nation
• American Children Like Me Are Lazy And Insolent And Must Try Harder
• Know Any Good State Secrets? (Op-ed)

They missed a couple of spoof stories, such as, “Citizens line up at subway stops,” “Taxi driver buys toothbrush,” “Beijing expects to record 366 blue-sky days in 2009,” and  “Fuwa sex-tape scandal spreads to 2020 Expo mascot.” All in good fun, of course, all in good fun…

I am not a big fan of “soft” openings, but if any bar can justify one, it is a place that aims for “speak easy” status. And that is the situation tonight as Fubar, the city’s newest bar and the brainchild of Chad Lager and Kevin Zhang, opens its, uh, hidden door tonight.  (Note: Their second project, Stadium Hot Dog, will soon open in front of the bar.)

Fubar is at the base of the southeast corner of Workers Stadium. If you are at the east gate and walking toward Hotel A, turn left and walk until you reach Studio Coffee near gate 10. (There is a jewelry store on one side and a beauty shop on the other.) Go inside Studio Coffee, down the stairs, and press the button on the wall to open the hidden door. Manager Chad Lager says he will have the place open until midnight tonight…

I will post some photos shortly…

And here they are…

As mentioned earlier, Salud – known for its homemade rums, fun crowds, and earthy atmosphere in Nanluoguxiang – is planning a second branch in Sanlitun, across from Tongli Studio. The launch is set for July 23 to July 25. See the poster below for more details.

A year ago tomorrow, the South China Morning Post reported that the “Beijing authorities are secretly planning to ban black people and others it considers social undesirables from entering the city’s bars during the Olympic Games…”

The Village Grouch and I were at The Den that Friday when we heard the news and he encouraged me to phone some bar owners to see if they had been told to ban blacks. That resulted in a series of posts that drew a lot of traffic, culminated in this “Blacks enjoy drinks, play pool, apparently await ball” post that admittedly took liberties with the situation, and evoked comments that ranged from me being a government mouthpiece to a crusading journalist (unfortunately, I’m afraid the “social undesirables” might be closer to the mark). I eventually wrote:

… I found little evidence to back the SCMP claim. As several readers point out, this does not disprove the newspaper’s claim or mean Beijing has a rosy history of bar scene race relations, not with prejudice toward blacks, friction caused by black drug dealers, and a significant police action last fall. But as other media are not revealing supporting evidence for the SCMP claim, this suggests the newspaper might have gotten off to – in sporting terms – a false start.

Whatever the case, bars did remain open to blacks and “social undesirables” – including people who wear sunglasses perched on a backwards baseball cap – throughout the Olympics.

A lot of Beijing bars seem to lack a calendar given they often start to promote parties – such as for Fourth of July – only a few days before the event. Because we are helpful people persons, The Village Grouch and I sat down and thought up a few parties that enterprising establishments in Beijing might want to hold during the next few weeks…

Dark Side of the Moon: To celebrate the total eclipse of the sun on July 22. We won’t actually see the dark side of the moon, but the sun can, and that is all that really matters. Get out the “pre-season moon cakes“, crack open the Sol, mix up the Solar Flare cocktails, put on Total Eclipse of the Heart and Moon River. Whatever. There won’t be another such eclipse for at least a century, which is about 100 times longer than the average shelf life for a Beijing bar, so it’s now or never…

Line 10 party: To mark the opening of this subway line on July 19 at 2 PM last year. The Village Grouch says that every place that has benefited from the line’s opening, pretty much every one along east Third Ring Road, should have 2-kuai drinks – the subway fare – at 2 PM this Sunday. And install turnstiles in the toilets.

Man on the Moon: To celebrate this Monday’s fortieth anniversary of people believing humans set foot on the lunar orb. Drink all the counterfeit booze you can find in honor of the fantastic job NASA did to fake that whole landing thingy. And while you’re at, raise a pint to the Loch Ness monster, Yeti, and underwater deer. (Just kidding. I believe we landed on the moon. Too bad the Chinese put someone there via catapult 5,000 years ago.)

Olympic Flashback: To celebrate the opening ceremony of The Games last August 8. If, like me, you were busy hitting dozens of bars while that event unfolded, you would like a second chance to see it and, even better, to dress up as your favorite Fuwa. Suggestion: Put the entrance of the athletes on fast forward.

The Longest Holding Call Ever Party: A tailgate party for the NFL pre-season game that was supposed to be played in Beijing on August 8, 2007 between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks, and was rescheduled for… never?

Dog Days of Summer: A food crawl focused on dogs – not barbecued Doberman, Chihuahua or whatever, but good old hot dogs sold at stands. The tour could hit Stadium Dog, No More Bunz, Cosmo, Crazy Dog, Bar Uno, and so on. It’d be off the leash…

The land that gave us Air Supply, Crocodile Dundee, and vegemite takes on the home of the Backstreet Boys, Derek Zoolander, and Velveeta in a beer off next Friday at Sequoia Cafe. The under-card sees Australia’s Redback Wheat weigh in against America’s Blue Star Wheat, followed by James Boags Premium Lager lining up against Brooklyn Lager.

The caps get popped at 6:30 PM on July 24. The fee is RMB100, which includes four beers, hot dogs (the food du jour in Beijing these days), and a chance to win T-shirts and six-packs. To join, email Frank Siegel at frank.siegel@gmail.com.