Beijing Boyce

The top floor of Bar Blu has been a pleasant surprise this year with that extra deck, expanded beer menu, and live music lineup, led by New Zealand band Solidaz. I have stopped by a handful of times on weekends and always found it busy.

Now Bar Blu has started a nightly BBQ buffet that runs from 6 pm to 10 pm on weekdays and 6 pm to midnight on weekends, says manager Tait Dalrymple. The lineup includes everything from steaks, ribs and chicken to salad, baked potatoes and garlic bread. The price: rmb68. And for the time being, customers can get a rmb20 discount by asking for a voucher at the bar, reducing the price to rmb48. I plan to stop by and try  it out in the next week or so…

By the way, Bar Blu also has a happy hour, 5 pm to 8 pm, with Stella, Hoegaarden and cocktails at rmb30.

Note: Home Plate is closed on July 4 and possibly for a few more days. If in doubt, call Home Plate at 5128-5584.

I posted earlier about Canada Day deals in Beijing and now it is time to go south of the largely unprotected border for some Fourth of July specials.

• Texan Tim Hilbert of Tim’s Texas BBQ near the Silk Market is offering free apple pie to anyone buying a bucket of five beers — Budweiser or Coors Light — for rmb100 this Saturday, Sunday or Monday. Tim’s also has a beer and hot dog deal for rmb25.
• Nevadan Kenny Lew of Eudora Station is planning three days of specials, starting on Friday. Each days includes a BBQ — with burgers, sausages and more — from 8 PM to midnight, with a rmb120 option for free-flow American wine and beer. The weekend will also feature house band Greg Carroll and Bump City.
• New Yorkers Seth Grossman and Texan Adam Murry at Home Plate BBQ say they will be preparing plenty of food — pulled pork, brisket and more — and on July 3 will have a rmb10 Budweiser special.
• Ohioan Carl Setzer of Great Leap Brewery literally had his shoulder to the grindstone to create his Independent Summer Ale. It will be available on Saturday and Sunday. (Note: Great Leap Brewery will be closed on July 4.)
• And last but not least, more than 1000 people are expected to attend the Fourth of July party held by the American Chamber of Commerce at Legation Quarter on July 3. Expect big bands, a kids area and more. Tickets must be bought from the AmCham office by 5 PM Friday: no tickets will be sold at the door. For details, see here.

If I hear of any more events or specials, I’ll add them here…

Colourful chestfield, eh?

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Do you hail from The Great White North but live in The Middle Kingdom? Do you crave Moosehead, poutine and a replay of the 2010 Olympic gold medal hockey game? Then, despite this being a busy weekend what with the 90th anniversary of the CCP and the Moon Island and aircraft carrier parties (see here), you are in luck as a trio of Beijing bars and restaurants have some good deals to celebrate Canada Day.

So get off the chesterfield, put on your toque and check ‘em out. And as a warm-up, try my Canada quiz. (Note to the apple pie-eating Olympic silver medal-winning sweater monkeys who live directly south of Canada: I will soon have a post on July Fourth deals in Beijing.)

Trevor Metz (British Columbia) of Shuangjing bar and restaurant Grinders is cracking open the C.C. from noon on Friday (July 1) until the moose come home or closing time, whichever is first. He’ll have rmb60 pitchers of Canadian Club and Canada Dry ginger ale, rmb15 bottles of Moosehead, and, if all goes well, Bloody Caesars. (He is planning some poutine action, though purists beware, I’m not sure if he has cheese curds.) And he has a pile of hockey sticks in case people want to play pickup out front – or make giant chuanr.

Arthur Hagopian (Ontario) of Gulou area bar The Box, known to some as “the Canadian bar” given its use of the flag, moose images, and souvenirs, is getting into the spirit on Saturday (July 2). From 2 pm to 6 pm, The Box will have free local draft and snacks – look for poutine again – as well as Mill Street beers Tank House and Stock Ale from Toronto at half-price. If you dress like a famous Canadian – think Bob and Doug, Red Green, Justin Bieber, Celine Dion or, if you can pull it off, Bieber and Dion at the same time – you get in a draw for a bottle of Crown Royal. And Hagopian plans to show the 2010 Olympic gold medal game between Canada and the United States in which Robert Luongo made us all poop our pants before we eventually won.

Billy Kawaja (Newfoundland) of 798 restaurant, bar and lemonade stand Switch is celebrating the ultimate Canadian food and beverage pairing – doughnuts and beer. (Just typing that sentence makes me hungry for Timbits.) Anyone who orders a bucket of five Moosehead – a deal at rmb100 – gets a six-pack of jelly doughnuts. Freeze that extra donut and use it as a puck, a very thick coaster, or whatever. The special at Switch runs Saturday and Sunday.

If I find any more deals, and I’m hoping for one or two more, I’ll add them here…

Miracle of miracles, I found Great Leap Brewery before happy hour ended tonight, which meant a pull of Pale Ale No 6 for rmb20. Much bigger news is that this operation has been growing by, ahem, leaps and bounds and will soon open another branch, this one by the Great Wall. Headed by Carl Setzer and partner Dane VandenBerg, who arrived in Beijing a mere three weeks ago, the new operation will primarily function as a brewery and thus increase the capacity of the Great Leap Brewery Dynasty. The original operation has quickly attracted a strong following and brought kudos to Setzer, who makes the beers from scratch and at times includes ingredients from China, including tea and Sichuan peppercorns.

Gulou area cafe and gallery Aluss, a spin-off of nearby bar Amilal, will close as of tonight. Aluss opened earlier this year and has been gathering steam as an event space but the owner has decided to pack it in and seek a new venue. There were still a few beers this left this afternoon in case anyone wants to drop by for a final drink. The movers are slated to pick up the furniture tomorrow. More on Aluss here.

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Workers Stadium cocktail bar George’s celebrated a year of stirring and shaking by holding a  party last Saturday night. A crew from Sim spent the afternoon filming owner George Zhou as he made cocktails and then the staff quickly cleaned up the bar for the three-hour party, with guests having a choice of six different free drinks as well as snacks, including desserts from nearby Le Quai.

Zhou has been a mainstay on the Beijing bar scene for a half-dozen years, working at the former First Cafe before teaming up with Echo Sun to open Midnight Cafe (now home of Terra) and both Sun and Ralph Ziegenhorn to open Q Bar atop the Eastern Inn some five years ago. He sold his shares in Q Bar in the spring of 2010 and a few months later opened George’s, his first solo project. You can follow his Sina micro-blog here.

First cocktail with Templeton (pic: mm)

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Templeton Rye Whiskey from Iowa made its official Beijing debut on Saturday — Home Plate BBQ got the first bottle. Simon Pendergast of distributor Dxcel says that One East restaurant (Beijing Hilton) and American Café will have it in stock this week and that Mesh (Opposite House) and Fubar also plan to get it.

Look for more American whiskeys to soon show up in Beijing, including Fighting Cock and Noah’s Mill. More of these soon…

(Photo: brewdog.com)

Update: It looks like Dxcel is instead bringing in BrewDog. More info here.

The proliferation of whiskeys and wines in Beijing is impressive but for sheer range I marvel at our growing choice of beers — both in terms of style and place of origin — compared to even five years ago. Now four beers from BrewDog in Scotland will soon be available. Before anyone gets too excited, this initial batch will not include the high-alcohol beers that, along with some controversial marketing, have brought this operation press, beers such as The End of History (55 percent; sold out), Sink the Bismarck (41 percent) and Tactical Nuclear Penguin (32 percent). But these are nevertheless some intriguing brews and include Trashy Blonde Ale, Punk IPA, Hardcore IPA and 77 Lager.

BrewDog is being imported by XIX Spirit, which is also bringing in Scottish whiskies, including those from Compass Box, Arran and Jura, and the Scottish gin Botanist. I’ll have more on these beers and spirits soon…

Thyme One restaurant opens tonight and gives residents of the Hopson Center yet another option just outside their front gate. I talked to manager Evan today and he said the focus is “creative” Chinese cuisine, with about 50 dishes on the menu, including veal, chicken and Australian beef mains and appetizers and salads from ~rmb25. He expects the average bill to be rmb100 to rmb150 per person.

Along with the main dining room, with views of the Hopson courtyard, there are several semi-private areas. The beverage list includes a Jasmine tea and Pomelo fruit mix at rmb30, with beer starting at rmb10 and wine at rmb225, though most bottles are rmb350 or more.

Thyme One joins several other places on the strip:

• He Yi Sheng, a Japanese joint that has teamed up with Andingmen’s El Nido on its beer list. The fridges feature more than 70 options, including Samuel Smith, Scrimshaw, Coopers, Acme and Estrella Damm as well as the ciders Stowford Press and Henry Weston.
• Bang Bang, a pizza joint and bar that provides the area’s pub grub, plenty of drink options, and a solid happy hour from 3 PM to 7 PM, when Stella and Tiger pints are rmb35 and rmb20 respectively. (Bang Bang gets my personal vote for the spot  I’m most likely to visit for one drink and still be there at dawn.)
• Iki, a busy Korean restaurant that opened on New Year’s Eve. Several people say have had to wait to get a seat. On the beverage side, Iki stocks makoli as well as a growing number of beers, including Vedett blond and extra white on tap.

All three of these places have seating out front…

Get Boned this Saturday

I don’t usually write about aircraft carriers or chili peppers but here are four upcoming summer events…

June 25: The inaugural DazeFeast, with more than a dozen bands and plenty of roast lamb, will be held at 2 Kolegas starting at 3 PM. Entry is free. The lineup includes Maggie Who, making its last appearance, as well as what is arguably the nation’s second-best blues band, the book deal-less Black Cat Bone (just kidding, these guys are still my favorite, even if I no longer feel any guilt). Expect this one to be an all-nighter.

June 25: Loyalty dictates that I mention my country’s national day party at the Canadian International School. (Let’s hope the emcees do not continually plug all the “great” food available long after it has run out, as happened one year. Mini rant over.) This event tends to be a family friendly and this year includes a Canada Idol contest, the annual Beijinger magazine chili-eating contest and live bands.  Starts at 3 PM; tickets rmb160 at the door.

(Note: Since Canada Day is July 1 and US Independence Day is July 4, I am aiming to get a small group together and do a modest pub crawl of Canadian and American owned joints on July 2. If you’re interested in joining, let me know.)

July 2:  Last week, DJ Phil from Youth Club and 1F, and formerly Tun Bar, told me he will be playing a “New Moon Party” on Yuetuo Dao a.k.a. Moon Island with DJs Saul from Punk, Jealous from 1F, and visiting Moto from London. According to this site, attendees can go jet skiing, fishing and motorbiking. Tickets are rmb100, from spots such as  1F, Tun, Suzie Wong, Fubar, Zarah Bolou and Drum & Bell, and there are buses (rmb100) to the venue from Sanlitun and Guomao.  More info here.

July 2: And last but not least, the third annual Aircraft Carrier Party is set  for Tianjin, with Kokomo’s DJ El-Mar and more than a dozen DJs on three stages.  Tickets are rmb250 before June 29 and rmb30 from June 30 on (price includes return bus trip) and available at Kokomo, Salud (Nanluoguxiang), Lavita and Nola. Buses leave from Chaoyang Park and Guomao. More details here.

Oops.

After posting about the Titanic II cocktail created by Paul Mathew at Flamme last night, I decided it would be unfair to not mention a drink he created earlier that evening. Let me first say that rare is the bartender one can approach, ask “Since this pollution sucks, how about inventing a drink called The Green Lung?” and watch create a tasty and original concoction in a matter of minutes. Some bartenders would refuse to do it; others would be incapable; only a few would be both willing and able to see thought such a project.

Here’s Mathew’s recipe for The Green Lung: gin, grapefruit bitters, Chartreuse elixir vegetal and Benedictine, with a lemon twist.

The Green Lung checks in at ~400,000 booze parts per million compared to a measly high of 460 parts for Beijing air pollution yesterday. I suggest you order three at a time. Sometimes two Green Lungs aren’t enough in this city…

New bar and lounge Sealing has the potential to become party central given a layout that can handle four get-togethers simultaneously and a location across from the club strip on Workers Stadium West. Located atop Italian restaurant Metro, Sealing offers a low-key but stylish space, with the main area including a marble-topped three-sided bar, a handful of lounge areas with sofas in blacks and mottled browns, and high tables and chairs to go along with the brick wall, wood paneling, candles and art. There is also an entire wall with spirit bottle cutouts illuminated from behind, and that seems a bit much, but overall this is a nice space. Sealing has a smaller room and two deck areas, both facing the street, with seating ranging from 15 to 30 people.

As for drinks, expect to plunk down rmb20 for soft drinks, rmb25 and up for beer (the selection is small though I believe I saw Acme Pale Ale at ~rmb50), and cocktails at rmb45 and up, with more than a dozen house specialties – they have names such as Shy Girls and Miss Yoyo – from rmb55. A bottle of Duval-Leroy Champagne is rmb680 while Veuve Clicquot will cost your rmb860 – or you can get two bottles of Pikes Riesling for the same price.

Sealing is still getting up to speed with its cocktails: my gin martini went down a bit rough and I noticed some uncertainly behind the bar with other drinks. But on the whole, I found the employees attentive and serious about their work, so there is plenty of potential here, though the waitresses’ outfits are a bit stiff and something casual might be a better fit.

As for the name Sealing – and the motto “Sealing your memories here”– that will no doubt be the source of more than a few quips but hopefully it turns out to be the biggest criticism of this place.

Now if Pavillion down the street can get its act together…

The crab was *this* big!

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Jingshen Seafood Market in Beijing is not the kind of spot you want to visit if you get squeamish seeing oysters shucked, fish cleaned, crocodiles stuck in small tanks, or the occasional sea creature floating belly up. But it is where a lot of seafood served in this city’s restaurants come from. I visited last month with a group that was led by Migas chef Aitor Olabegoya and included visiting Spanish chef Carles Tejeda. The market is huge, with outdoor and indoor areas, and stocks everything from Canadian lobsters to Australian king crabs to sea cucumbers, crocodiles and smoked salmon. There are restaurants where you can have your seafood prepared though we didn’t visit any on this trip. Here are eight photos from the morning plus one of Tejeda making a “gin tonic oyster” at Migas.

Tejeda and Olabegoya check the crabs

A parking lot turned seafood market

Finishing the visit with a game of chess

Unsinkable? This went down in about five minutes (Pic: P Mathew)

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The best bad movie I have seen over the past year is Titanic II.

Spoiler alert: I’m about to summarize the plot in less than 40 words so stop reading here if you don’t want to know it.

[Pause]

The plot: A second and superior – nay, unsinkable – Titanic sets sail on the hundredth anniversary of the original launch but is doomed when ice shelf collapses in the Arctic send not one but two iceberg laden tsunamis hurtling across the Atlantic.

Atrocious story line but — given the cheesy acting, crude special effects and mind-boggling plot inconsistencies — it has a “so bad it is good” quality to it. (A favorite scene: the ship’s captain being told he must reach warmer, less iceberg-friendly waters – and has but 15 minutes to do so. Another: a sub captain who, told to rescue the Titanic, dramatically says, “Let’s get this cigar smoking!”)

Anyway, it seemed right that a cocktail exists that is as good as this movie is bad so I asked Paul Mathew at Flamme last night if he would make one. Luckily, he not only came up with a recipe but also created a ship-shaped garnish to fit the occasion. The Titanic II ingredients: apple juice ice ball (a.k.a. the “iceberg”) with Don Julio Reposado tequila, apple juice and grapefruit bitters.

By the way, if you ever make this drink, carefully consider the angle of your garnish. Mine came at such a slope that, had it been the Titanic II, saving anyone would have been near impossible. Can put a guy in a reflective mood…

I'd call that rare.

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I joined a group from Migas, including three visiting chefs from Spain, on a trip to Beijing Zhuochen Animal Husbandry last week. It was my first visit to a slaughterhouse in China and, to say the least, more intense than the Migas seafood market tour last month. Zhuochen specializes in halal beef — that means, among other things, the animals are killed by slitting their throats (see this Saskatchewan site on halal meat). We didn’t see any animals killed but did see workers cutting off hooves, removing hides and halving carcasses. These would no doubt be disturbing sights for many people but it is the reality behind those burgers and steaks on our plates.

A Zhuochen rep told us that the animals are grass fed in Inner Mongolia and that the company’s clients include the Jingkelong supermarket chain in Beijing. (Migas is not yet a customer — this was their first time there.) The visiting chefs seemed impressed by the slaughterhouse and said it would pass EU standards. The company later had a barbecue beside the slaughterhouse…

Heaven help him? Get this man a vodka cream soda!

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A visit to gay club Stallion on Saturday night made me think a more appropriate name might be My Little Pony. No offense but this place is basically a three-room apartment that someone decorated in white and then added two bars, spartan furniture and a bunch of balloons. Given the name, I guess I expected something more charged. Like waiters wearing cowboy boots and pink ten-gallon Stetsons. Or a mechanical bull. To be fair, it is early days for this venue above Moroccan restaurant Argana, whose manager recently left and would no doubt be less than gay, er happy, with this turn of events, and the team is thus still getting its stable in order. Or perhaps I was too early (there were about a half-dozen customers, most of them in a tight circle, around 11:30 PM) and/or didn’t fit in due to improper attire (I came from the Migas funk party in a garish shirt that screamed Halloween). Anyway, I’ll stop by again in a week or two. In the meantime, expect juice and soda at rmb20, beer at rmb25, spirits at rmb30 and cocktails at rmb35.

Nearby in Sanlitun North, Patrick de Smet has completed a so-called Tree-some (drum roll) by branching out (cymbal crash) and opening a third bar in the area, on the second floor of the building across from the entrance of The Tree. It is called By the Tree and with Nearby the Tree completes the Tree-logy (second drum roll). This one is billed as a sports bar, given its pool table, foosball machine et al, and has a decor that will remind you of the first two places. When I visited on Friday, the menu from The Tree was in use, which means you can get pizza and Belgian beer to your stomach’s content.

Finally, a quick note re the liquor shop that is nearby Nearby the Tree, goes by the names Paradise and Heaven Supermarket and several weeks ago added stools and a half-dozen tables out front. It is hard to beat this place for sheer choice and price, and I sat there for several hours on Saturday with a group led by The Beijinger’s Jonathan White and Iain Shaw, who convinced us vodka and cream soda was a good idea. Besides witnessing the headaches of fixing a rickshaw (see photo above), we found the street out front to be a thoroughfare for people from the food and beverage scene, with reps from more than a half-dozen bars and restaurants by, not to mention more than a few stumbling journalists, some of whom ended up joining us. Call it the gray tarmac replacing the red carpet. More cream soda, anyone?

Last night, I went to new bar and lounge Sealing, across from the Worker Stadium West club strip, and watched as the staff made a house cocktail called Shy Girls. It looked quite appealing with those vibrant colors glowing through the glass sweat. I’m not sure exactly what is in it though I did see the bartenders add sparkling wine and Grenandine — and that fancy watermelon garnish. Anyway, I’ll have a fuller post on Sealing soon…

Gung Ho has teamed up with Jun Trinh, host of Who Stole My Kitchen and formerly head of the kitchens at Vietnamese restaurants Banh Mi Now and Pho Pho, on a new summer menu available as of Thursday. The menu includes three salads created by Trinh: a Vietnamese chicken salad that includes pumpkin, sweet potato and “coconut lime vinaigrette”, a Thai beef salad with spinach, and a tropical salad that includes pineapple, smoked tofu, coconut and shredded walnut. Gung Ho is also adding a spicy grilled beef pizza and a spinach pesto chicken pizza to its menu.

Note: I wrote last month that Trinh was involved in revamping the menu at Bar Blu; he is no longer involved there. More on Bar Blu in a separate post.

Three single malts from lesser-known producers, spotted and tried in Beijing…

Australia: I have wanted to try a Down Under whiskey ever since I saw the brands Lark and Bakery Hill listed in Michael Jackson’s Complete Guide to Single Malt Scotch. I finally had my chance a few weeks ago, though the bottle came from Sullivan’s Cove in Tasmania. I spotted it at Mao Mao Chong, decided RMB60 a reasonable price to try something new, and ordered a shot. To be honest, I had already consumed several drinks by this time, was halfway through a spicy Bloody Mao, and didn’t take careful notes, so all I have to report is “caramel”, “vanilla” and “crème brulee”. I do know I wanted more and would recommend anyone who is a fan of single malts but has not tried an Australian one to get to Mao Mao Chong while supplies – one half-finished bottle – last.

Sweden: Fate recently had me in the same bar as Fredrik Esbensen of Vandergeeten (distributor of Stella, Chimay and other Belgian beers) and had him with reps from Swedish single malt maker Mackmyra. Since I didn’t make the guest list for the recent Mackmyra party at The Single Malt Club, I readily agreed when the reps invited me to try their whiskey at the Swedish embassy’s national day party. (I have always associated Sweden with meatballs, but with pizza topped with corn and black olives? Who knew.)

The key  product was Mackmyra’s First Edition, which was first released in 2008 and uses both Swedish oak and Jack Daniel’s Tennessee Whiskey barrels. I picked up vanilla, citrus fruit and something between honey and butterscotch, with Mackmyra’s Sanna Danell, who patiently explained the distillery’s background while doling out drinks during a thunderstorm, summing it up as marzipan. This whiskey had a rounder body than I expected. I also tried some Mackmyra aged only in Swedish oak and found it more complex and with a longer finish. Danell says the company is working on the logistics of selling full barrels of Mackmyra in China. In the meantime, expect to see some of the bottled stuff about town.

Switzerland: Is Whisky Castle drinkable? Yes. Was the bottle of Whisky Castle I recently tried at Grinders drinkable? Nope. We were there because Mr Hao brought back a bottle of White Dog from Buffalo Trace (this one had more bite than bark, so to speak) and in the course of the evening ended up trying Whisky Castle courtesy of co-owner Chad Lager. Unlike with wine, I find it rare to encounter a bottle of whiskey that has gone off but this one smelled like a combination of wet cardboard and damp cellar. (Lager immediately discarded the bottle.) The distributor might want to look into this situation given this stuff wholesales for something like rmb700 per bottle. In the meantime, for those who want to try some, 1F also has a bottle in stock.

The bar at Temple

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I finally got a peak at Temple, the secluded project headed by former Maison Boulud GM Ignace Lecleir, near the National Art Museum and eateries such as Chengdu restaurant Shudu Binguan and newcomer Susu Vietnamese restaurant. Temple’s 80-seat restaurant will open later this year, said Lecleir, but the kitchen is in place and the venue is hosting private events for up to 250 people, with about a half-dozen on the schedule this month. I attended one yesterday, a tasting of Dr. Buerklin-Wolf wines from Globus, of which I’ll have more soon.