Beijing Boyce

BEIJING BOYCE 48

Opening shots: Urban Sambal, China Doll, Robert Parker

Surreal Saturday: Deer petting, Dom P, taters and berries

Hate Sauvignon Blanc? Blame your childhood

Sunday with Special K: CSL, Saddle, Smugglers & more

Mid-week with Special K: Noodle Bar, Nanjie, The Tree

Short cuts: Ghana do it? Football fun in Beijing

Grape Wall: ‘Wine humidor’, screw tops, wine training

Closing shots: Now in Chinese, Korean, Spanish & more

OPENING SHOTS

Save your fen! Wine writer Robert Parker will make his first trip to China next month and the price tag for the two wine dinners being organized by ASC is nothing to sniff at: RMB15888 (USD2270) per head. Then again, the May 24 Beijing dinner is on the Great Wall, is catered by Blu Lobster, and includes eight wines Parker rated 94 points or higher. / Open since December in the ex-Browns location, Revelations recently held its official launch party with live music, tango dancers (meow!), a draw, and free drinks. This cavernous spot offers what I consider Beijing’s best lunch deal though patronage is light. / Meanwhile, Urban Sambal had its re-launch party the same night. Located rather inconveniently near Phoenix Town, the space has an art gallery feel and bustled with patrons who enjoyed free Mojitos, martinis, wine, Qingdao and tapas (excellent curry!). / The Rickshaw held its one-year anniversary bash with people flank to shank upstairs as a DJ cranked out tunes and the bar handed out free beer, including three kegs of homebrew from sibling bar The Saddle Cantina. / Wine shop Cellar Le Pinot, near the Hyatt, marked its second anniversary with a free tasting and 20 percent off on purchases. / Gleann Phealan at Paddy O’Shea’s said about 35 Canucks showed up recently to watch the NHL playoffs. To watch an early morning game, contact him ahead of time at gleann@paddyosheas.com. For NBA fans, I have caught several games at The Rickshaw. / The ground has thawed, the leaves are out, and that means The Stone Boat “Tunes in the Park” series is up and running. Along with weekly acts, the place is holding “Boat Paridiso Video Shorts“, on May 15 at 9 PM, “featuring film/video art, vidcasts, animation, and other shorts highlighting local life and talent.” / Just two weeks after a high-profile raid in Sanlitun, People’s Daily reported that more drug investigations are planned in the city’s bars in the Olympics lead-up. / Hot on the heels of that’s Beijing’s restaurant awards comes City Weekend’s reader choice restaurant and nightlife awards (with voting in 44 categories), and then hot on the heels of that will be that’s Beijing Bars and Clubs Awards. Then we have the Olympics, so everything is coming together as planned. / Those seeking pizza the week of April 14 at The Kro’s Nest yesterday went pie-less as this spot, along with Vics, Mix, and The Outback Steakhouse, were closed ahead of the Brazil-Ghana football game to decide the final Olympics’ soccer qualifier. / The city’s plan to ban public smoking has been revised. Restaurants, bars and Internet cafes will be exempt from a recently announced ban on smoking in public places to start May 1, reported China Daily. / After more than four years as Sanlitun South’s friendly neighborhood bar, Phil’s Pub is closed. Phil says the landlord is taking over the space and that he and partner Sally seeking a new location (thanks to EB for the tip). / Construction on the new China Doll, atop the 3.3 Building, is coming along. The lounge will face Sanlitun’s main strip, while the main area has a bar, dance floor, VIP room and seven themed private rooms, with two elevators providing access from the street behind. An extension is being built on 3.3’s north face and China Doll will use its 400-square-meter rooftop.

SURREAL SATURDAY: Deer Petting, Dom P, Taters and Berries

The resort - an hour’s drive beyond Beijing - sat nestled among a dozen mountains, upon one of which The Great Wall snaked like gray piping on a green felt jacket. Its balconies, pillars, arches, stonework, gilded trim - all seemed as though they had been teleported from Europe with the wave of a magic wand. Upon its vast deck sat scores of attendees sipping cocktails and wine, and nibbling barbecued lamb, stewed beef, and potato salad studded with strawberries, grapes and bananas. As the afternoon dwindled, a small herd of tame deer materialized to mingle among those on the sprawling lawn.

Why, one might reasonably ask, were we there? A press conference for Klubb Rouge*, an establishment to soon open in downtown Beijing, a dozen floors above Hooters on Workers’ Stadium East Road.

Last Saturday’s event and a Gongti club might seem an odd juxtaposition, somewhat along the lines of strawberries in potato salad, but who am I to complain about getting out of the city. And that is what more than one hundred of us – PR people, F&B managers, magazine types, and the like – did as we gathered on three buses that first inched through downtown traffic and then wound past fields, farm villages, vegetable vendors, and reservoirs to the resort.

The press conference proved anticlimactic. A poorly planned Powerpoint presentation resulted in print too tiny to read, while the verbal delivery consisted largely of rah-rah sentiments such as, “it’s really going to change the club scene,” “it’s going to amaze your eyes and amaze your ears,” and “you will be really, really, really delighted.”

Fortunately, I was able to ask general manager David Blais a few questions on the deck (I’ve paraphrased his answers).

Is Klubb Rouge related to Bar Rouge in Shanghai?

No, although a former consultant and DJ from Bar Rouge are working on the project.

How big is the club?

The club has 1400 square meters of space on the fourteenth floor of China View as well as a terrace with a 360-degree view, two private rooms, and a mezzanine that can hold 300 to 400 people. The total capacity is 1500 to 2000 people.

How much will cocktails cost?

About 70 to 80 kuai.

Will there be food?

No, at least not in the beginning.

It was then time to enjoy a sunny afternoon in sedate surroundings, and enjoy a buffet of salad, meat and fruit as well as an open bar. Things were made all the more delightful when one at our table - Ross “Papa JJ” Goulding of Time Out magazine - won a draw for a bottle of 1999 Dom Perignon that he decided was best consumed there and then.

We realized that all good things must come to an end (translation: the last bus was leaving). After grabbing a few beverages and petting the deer, we boarded the bus for Beijing and a traffic flow that became increasingly and excruciatingly slower as we approached city center.

The long ride put both physical and spiritual distance between us and the afternoon that had been. Just before we tranquilized Ross “Papa JJ” Goulding, whose elocution, while endearing, was scaring fellow passengers due to its volume and endurance, he hoarsely said: “Twas a great day, but how the memory fades. In the words of the great Rutger Hauer, ‘All those moments will be lost in time, like my upcoming three-day hangover tears in rain.’”

(And yes, the Champagne was worth including that quote in this post.)

* KLUBB is spelled with the “K” reversed and a double “B”, while ROUGE is spelled with the “R” reversed. I lack the technology, let alone the willpower, to duplicate it here.

HATE SAUVIGNON BLANC? Try Blaming Your Childhood

“If you hated mowing the grass as a youth, you might just hate Sauvignon Blanc.”

“There is so much stress on luxury goods that we would rather people not drink wine if it’s the ‘wrong’ brand.”

“Imagine you are trying to sell shoes and you don’t realize people have differently sized feet. If a shoe doesn’t fit someone, you wouldn’t tell them, ‘Well, your foot isn’t mature.’”

These are some of the intriguing comments made by Tim Hanni when he spoke to a small group of China wine industry people in JW Marriott’s Pinot Brasserie in Beijing on April 8. Hanni is a wine researcher and educator, one of the first two Americans to become a Master of Wine, a founder of Napa Seasoning and training company WineQuest, and director of the Lodi International Wine Awards.

I first read about Hanni in a Wall Street Journal piece and then interviewed him for Grape Wall of China blog last month. I looked forward to getting his take on the wine scene and he didn’t disappoint. Over nearly four hours, he covered everything from his experiences with the Master of Wine exam to chemistry, biology and etymology (What do we mean by ‘palate’?) to the history of wine and food to his rock band (that’s a whole other story).

Hanni took the Master of Wine test in 1989 and “failed it miserably.” He knew he had the technical expertise, but was poor at essays, so he signed up for a three-day writing course. The course ended up being for engineers, he took it anyway, and this led to an epiphany.

“It was brilliant. We learned to take words that we think we all know, and to then agree on what they mean,” he says. “It occurred to me that with much of the language of wine, we think we know what we mean, but deep down there is a lack of agreement.”

Forget about notes of gooseberries and hints of cloves: Hanni says he has been talking to wine makers, sensory specialists and others for 20 years just to discover what we mean by “flavor” and “taste.”

“You have all this wine education going on and nobody’s taken time to answer the harder questions, such as “What’s a palate?” Or about the biggest piece of the puzzle, “How do senses work with the brain?”

He speaks of scientists who do brain scans to gauge the impact of our senses on it, of how atmosphere, color and music can affect wine drinkers, or of the power of suggestion (he says one study found that people gave different evaluations of a white wine and then the same wine - unbeknown to them - dyed red).

He goes so far as to make wine sound like therapy. Take Sauvignon Blanc, a wine often associated with a grassy smell. “We find that people who dislike Sauvignon Blanc have grass allergies; have bad memories of childhood summers; have bad experiences with lawn mowing and lawn moving equipment.”

Which is all to say that why we like or dislike a particular wine is individual, a product of our senses, of our memories and preconceptions, and of a myriad of other factors that argue against a “one size fits all” philosophy.

“People are anatomically different - one size does not fit all. And the size that is being pushed on people is dry wine,” he says.

“Imagine you are trying to sell shoes and you don’t realize people have differently sized feet,” he says. “You wouldn’t say, well, your foot isn’t mature.”

On Friday, I will have part two of the Tim Hanni talk, which covers how he categorizes wine drinkers as well as the food and wine demonstration he gave us.

SUNDAY WITH SPECIAL K: CSL, Saddle, Smugglers, & More

With his “I’m Beyonce” episode a distant memory (see newsletter 47), I hit the town with Special K on a recent Sunday. Here’s a roundup of spots visited that, on second reading, kind of comes off as a rant. I blame the pollution.

Café St. Laurent
CSL draws a strong Sunday brunch crowd, but would do well to reduce the clash between the quality of the food and drink and the décor - savory eggs Benedict versus sitting on emaciated cushions stippled with cigarette holes; tasty Cappuccino versus gazing at a dirty plastic roof; etc. It’s time to upgrade those seats and unravel the garden hose. Then again, maybe I’m grouchy because a waiter passed a full glass of water over my laptop and spilled some on it.

The Saddle Cantina
Given the squalls of tree fluff in the New Nali Studio courtyard, we grabbed a table inside the bar. Unfortunately, the staff defeated our efforts by inexplicably opening and closing the retractable rooftop several times thus letting in more of the stuff. Were they bored? Is the roof fun to open? Is tree fluff - which tends to have a magnetic attraction to cocktails - considered festive in Beijing and/or Mexico?

The staff is likable at The Saddle Cantina and sibling establishment The Rickshaw but service, while usually OK, can be sketchy. Too often orders get mixed up or misunderstood, no one is able to work the satellite dish, employees compare cell phone rings instead of paying attention to customers, and so on.

This raises the great mystery of service in Beijing: how can it be good at a relative newcomer like Kro’s Nest and such a struggle at The Rickshaw, Saddle, Revelations, and others? For example, I had lunch at Revelations on Monday- there were about ten tables of people, which only represented about a third of capacity. Even so, the staff needed to reconfirm our order several times, forgot the bread, brought my dish 15 minutes before those of my companions, responded to the confusion over my coffee request by repeating themselves at increasing volume. That said, this spot offers arguably the best-value lunch deal in town, so you take the good with the bad.

OK, rant over.

To return to The Saddle Cantina: Special K found his Mango Mojito weak, while I was impressed with /recommend the Pina Colada Margarita. RMB40 is a pricey for a bottle of Corona, though OK for a literally ice-cold pint of Stella. I can hardly wait to see how this place’s home brew turns out

Luga’s
With not a seat to be had outside, we sat in the new section of the bar, which formerly housed a Xinjiang restaurant that reader ET says had good dapanji and the best noodles in town (by the way, don’t be surprised if there is further expansion of Luga’s). We shared an order of beef nachos and chicken quesadilla, both tasty, and enjoyed a few Coronas. Always one to experiment, Special K stuck his finger in the bottle - I take it that he was fishing for the lime slice - and couldn’t get it out. Luckily, the miracle of mechanics (translation: a lot of pulling) allowed him to eventually free it.

The Smugglers
Special K liked the series of small narrow rooms, the sturdy beer house-style tables and benches, and the posters, finding the place simple but pleasant, though a bit quiet (we were the only patrons). The drinks are cheap (RMB25 for a Margarita, RMB10 for a juice) and the portions are small, while the beer specials are good value.

Kokomo
With the winter roof removed just that afternoon, we enjoyed a stiff breeze beneath the stars. Sam Adams at 35 kuai a pop is nice, though the experimental Champagne Mojito needs more time in the lab. The Christmas-type lights above the bar clash with the candlelight at the table - am I supposed to come here to part-tay or chill out? Expect some summer drink specials from this place.

The Boat
People must have been on shore leave, because only a handful of patrons were on board. Then again, it was late Sunday night. The Boat includes upper and lower decks, ample seating and a dance floor. It’s a cool idea, and I’ll return on a busier night to check it out. By the way, it was nice to see generous space devoted to toilets - this saves guys peeing over the side against a headwind.

MID-WEEK WITH SPECIAL K: Noodle Bar, Nanjie, The Tree, and more

Not content with our Sunday tour, Special K and I headed out again Wednesday night. Here’s the lowdown.

The Noodle Bar
1949: The Hidden City is livening up, with four venues open (Sugar, Noodle Bar, Duck de Chine, and 1/5 Taverna) and two more to come (Well Bar and 1/5 “lounge loft”).

Noodle Bar has a dozen seats and tight Spartan layout, with a sliding door, a three-sided stainless steel counter, and an open kitchen.

The noodles start at 28 kuai and are hand-pulled on the spot. Patrons can choose thick or thin with beef brisket, tendon, tripe, or vegetables.

We tried two side dishes - cucumbers with garlic and green beans with preserved vegetables (both 11 kuai) - and found them OK.

The noodles with beef brisket were another story. Expect a hearty portion with excellent broth that you can season with sliced spring onions, roasted garlic bits, cilantro, hot-pepper paste, sesame oil, soy sauce, vinegar, and salt. Special K said this would be a great late night meal (Noodle Bar is currently open until 9 PM) washed down with big bottles of beer (only 300 ML bottles of Tsing-dao currently available). This would also work well as a quick lunch.

Two downsides of the visit: 1) an aggressive staff that interrupted our talk every two to three minutes (the place is tiny enough that it should be obvious if patrons want to buy more side dishes, etc); 2) a 10-percent service charge.

Nanjie
We passed a new night club called, well, Night Club west of Regal Club and south of Revelations. Expect a three-story warped and gleaming silver façade embedded with strings of pulsing neon light, what look like huge papier-mâché carnations, and two signs - one with a pink, orange and yellow alien leaning on a speaker, the other for Chivas. (Speaking of Regal Club, they might want to edit their sign out front, unless they really do want to promote an “over-valued” menu. And the New Nali Studio might also want to change that “French Snail” sign.)

Back to Nanjie - some love it, some hate it, and I like it. With a bar and dance floor downstairs, a lounge area upstairs, and a wraparound balcony, it has something for most everyone and is a handy low-end getaway. Special K tried the Mojito - which he liked much better after adding more sugar - and we watched the street action (note: Salsa Caribe is busy on Wednesdays).

The Tree
As we passed The Rickshaw on our way to Sanlitun North, we saw a thin powerful green beam passing just above our heads. We thought it came from the street corner, but followed it to New Nali Studio before it suddenly disappeared. Weird. Anyone know what that was all about?

As usual, the “lady bar” touts were out in force and, on this night, invading the Tongli studio area. Where are those police dogs when you need them?

Special K convinced me to try a Morel’s passion fruit beer at The Tree and its sour wallop refreshed us. By the way, the waitress in our section efficiently took orders, cleaned dishes, and dealt with the demands of what must have been about 30 foreigners. She didn’t ooze happiness, but did her job and provided the usual good service that brings me back to The Tree.

As we headed home, we noticed a chalkboard outside Ciro’s Pomodoro advertising a nightly happy hour (8:30-9:30 PM), with 40 percent off cocktails, buy-one-get-one-free beer and “shoters”, and “disco music”. This follows up the place’s other recent promotional effort - blasting far-too-loud music onto the street.

SHORT CUTS: Pieces That Made the Blog But Not the Newsletter

Ghana do it? Soccer in Workers’ Stadium

I had my first “inside look” at the Olympics facilities recently as I attended the Brazil-Ghana women’s soccer match at Workers’ Stadium. The game determined the final qualifier for The Games and established who has the bigger fan base in Beijing: Brazil or Ghana.

www.beijingboyce.com/2008/04/23/ghana-do-it-soccer-in-workers-stadium/

When will the madness end? My filthiest post ever

Someone how the effort to clean up Beijing missed one spot near Workers’ Stadium and I have the photographic evidence to prove it.

www.beijingboyce.com/2008/04/08/when-will-the-madness-end-my-filthiest-post-ever/

Grape Wall: Posts from the Sibling Blog

Beijing Metro: The ‘wine humidor’

If you hear the words “wine humidor” and think of oak barrel displays, wooden shelves, and row upon row of top-end wine, you might be a tad disappointed by the Metro hypermarket on Beijing’s outskirts.

www.beijingboyce.com/2008/04/28/beijing-metro-the-wine-humidor/

Screw it? Video conference with Wolf Blass, George Samios

After Australian Embassy staff checked my bag, passed me through a metal detector, and gave me a cavity search (OK, scratch the last part), I joined four local wine journalists in Beijing last Tuesday for a video conference with iconic wine maker Wolf Blass and Foster’s Global Wine Ambassador George Samios. The event - jointly hosted by Austrade and ASC, which distributes Blass’ wine in China - focused on the use of screw caps on wine bottles.

www.grapewallofchina.com/2008/04/16/screw-it-video-conference-with-wolf-blass-george-samios/

Lessons learned: Training 2,000 restaurant workers in China

Since her last post, Yvonne Chiong has completed more than 30 two-hour training sessions with restaurant employees in China - all over Shanghai as well as in Beijing and Hong Kong. The idea was to give them a basic understanding of wine.

www.grapewallofchina.com/2008/04/10/lessons-learned-training-2000-restaurant-workers-in-china/

CLOSING SHOTS

The blog is now available in Chinese, Spanish, French and German, among other languages… kind of. I added the “babel fish” application on the right side of the blog - and the Grape Wall of China blog, for that matter – which makes machine translation a click away. Whether the result is comprehensible depends on the particular language and how many bottles of Qingdao you’ve downed. / It’s just over three months until the Olympics and if this year has shown us anything, it’s that anything can happen. We’ve swung from giddy expectation during the Chinese New Year to a lot of people feeling uncomfortable at present, with the bar and wine scenes being hit by drug raids, closures, delays, and Customs investigations. Play it safe out there, always keep some ID on your person and, as we say in Canada, keep your head up and your stick on the ice. Oh, and eat, drink, and be merry. Cheers, BB