Beijing Boyce

Looks brown to me...

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Because when people look at me, they automatically think of Usher* — and, no doubt, vice versa — Street Hustle Promotions invited me to try three cocktails made in honor of the R&B singer’s upcoming concert this Sunday at Wukesong Arena (for tickets, email events@streethustlepromotions.com or call 15901-201-771 / 15210-183-020).

Four Beijing bars have made such cocktails — Zeta, Fubar, Twilight, and Apothecary — and Thomas Talhelm of Street Hustle invited me to the latter. After a few “Who the F is this guy?” glances from the other hustlers / hustlettes, we all chilled out and sampled the cocktails, including “The Black One“,  the name of which pissed off at least one reader over yonder at City Weekend.

Although I like all colors of the rainbow, so to speak, this turned out to be my favorite of the three, although that spicy finish — they might want to try 7/8 of a “tine” of chipotle pepper rather than a full one — means a single serving per night would do. Most people disagreed and instead preferred “The White“, which in comparison is fruity (IMHO, too much so) and refreshing, especially attractive given the heat. (See all three recipes here.) I’m planning to try the Fubar creation tonight and hope to find it “usheriffic.”

This is the first time I have been to Apothecary in a few months because I’ve had several unremarkable martinis there, mostly due to the olives, at hefty prices, but I’ll stop in soon for a non-Usher related visit to try them again…

By the way, Apothecary is now open on Mondays. And kudos to the staff for its patience last night, given they had a lot of people, including a CCTV crew, on hand.

By the way II, I saw in the email from Street Hustle something about the “first ever foam party.” A buzzer on that claim if they are talking about Beijing. From 2006:

Browns now serves “jungle juice” during Wednesday ladies’ nights, which means people may soon be swinging from the rafters as well as dancing on the bar. Speaking of Browns, the foam party two weekends ago saw bubbles upon bubbles for most of the night, but they had burst by Sunday brunch. The place was virtually empty, yet it took over 20 minutes to get a simple breakfast and the COFFEE MACHINE WAS BROKEN! “If this had been my first visit to Browns, I would never go back,” said a downright bitter and caffeine-withdrawn M-Dawg.

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* I mean this usher.

ApotheCCTV...