Beijing Boyce

Long was among those who wigged out because of the game.

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My Irish friends remain angry that the French team and not their own is in the World Cup after the ‘hand of Henry’ play. My take: The organizers knew the Irish would have rolled to massive victories and destroyed not only the morale of every other team but also the future of the sport. It’s kind of like how you can’t have Karl Long, owner of Paddy O’Shea’s, on Dancing With the Stars — nothing could ever beat that. At least that’s my conspiracy theory and I’m sticking to it.

Despite the injustice, World Cup 2010 will go on and the aforementioned Long is offering  readers of this blog a chance to win 15 pints of Guinness.

How to enter? Leave a comment and tell us which two teams you think will make the World Cup final and the score. Then check back next Monday to see who is the winner of the draw. (Hint: The answer is  Ghana 2, Italy 1.) The deadline is 5 PM, Friday, April 16, and there is a limit of one entry per person.

Also look for Paddy O’Shea’s to offer some specials during the World Cup. Word is the bar will have a draw for six Irish Car Bomb shots every time a team scores against France, as well as three pints of Guinness for a red card and three shots of Jameson for a yellow card, again, against France. Word also has it anyone wearing a Henry jersey gets a discount on Kronenberg draft.

Long re-enacts the hand ball.

After a false start in Sanlitun, the team behind The Stumble Inn has secured the former Double Coffee space on the third floor of the Village. Look this two-floor space to reopen in six to eight weeks.

The Stumble Inn first opened in January 2009 on Lucky Street and quickly built a solid following due to its unpretentious surroundings, big beer list, and quiz nights, before closing seven months later due to what the management said were problems with the landlord. The investors hoped to secure the former Boutique Wine Bar space below Luga’s Villa, but Luga’s instead acquired it and opened a sports bar.

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See also:

• Unlucky Street? Stumble Inn is out
• Stumble Inn: Expect to Stumble Out
• New on Lucky Street: The Stumble Inn

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Update:  Beer Mania is getting into the Foursquare Day fun this Friday (tomorrow). It will provide two kegs of beer free as well as happy hour prices all night long for anyone who is checked into Foursquare. The first keg gets tapped at 9 PM. At Blue Frog, you can get a standard drink with every meal ordered, 10 AM to 7 PM. And Purple Haze Bistro offers a free drink to Foursquare users. More details here.

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Update: Lager reports that The Viper Room has contacted him to accept the challenge.

Johnny Depp and Chad Lager have a lot in common. Men? Check. American? Check. Fans of the pincer method for holding a cigarette. Check. Capable of gazing into the distance so as to melt the hearts of women? Check.

Despite a wealth of evidence these two should be best friends forever, and star in a series of buddy cop movies, they are slated for a smackdown on April 16 since Lager’s Fubar, a Beijing speakeasy he owns with Kevin Zhang and Ashley H, has challenged Depp’s LA club The Viper Room* in what should be a fierce Foursquare fight.

At issue: Who can get the most users to sign in during a three-hour period during FourSquare day. Sure, this might rank far below the World Cup and only slightly above Happy Farm in terms of excitement, but, well, whatever.

In Beijing, the FourSquare challenge starts at the Apple store in Sanlitun Village at 8:30 PM, then moves to Fubar.

Watch this blog for more details. You can follow Fubar (@fubarbeijing), The Viper Room (@theviperroom), or this blog (@beijingboyce), or the topics #4sqday and #4sqdayPEK, on Twitter. (And this post is not an full endorsement of FourSquare: I have mixed feelings about the technology and am waiting to see if they can work out the bugs.)

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* Actually, Depp sold his share in The Viper Room in 2004. I didn’t realize, until reading this Wikipedia page, the controversial history of the place.