Beijing Boyce

City Weekend and beer distributor Dxcel, known best for its Australian and American brews, are teaming up with a dozen Beijing establishments in October for the innaugural Beer Jing festival.

When you drink a Dxcel-distributed beer – say a Brooklyn Lager, Crown, or VB – at one of these dozen spots, you get a stamp in your passport for that place.  Be among the first 20 people to get eight stamps and you will be invited to the Beer Jing party on October 29 at Danger Doyle’s at 7:30 PM*. According to the press release, participants will  “taste some of the most exotic microbrews the world has to offer.”  The doors open to everyone at 9:30 PM and for RMB100 you can drink beer to your liver’s content.

To participate, pick up a “passport” at one of these bars: Danger Doyle’s (map), Rickshaw (map), Kro’s Nest (map), Ned’s (map), Frank’s Place (map), Westside Café, Union Bar and Grill (map), Unconditional Love Coffee (map), The Den (map), Nola, Vineyard Café (map), and Tim’s Texas Barbecue (map).

You can also find good deals on the Beer Jing brews during October at Kro’s Nest every Thursday (five beers for RMB80), at The Den every day (RMB25), and at Nola where prices range from RMB30 for VB to RMB26 for Blue Star. All 12 spots will offer a 20 percent discount on these beers during the “Beer Jing weekend”, October 16 to 18.

* You need at least eight stamps to qualify. Send a scan of your passport to Lee Mack at leemack@cityweekend.com.cn by October 26.

Every night is ladies night – well, almost – for bar explorer Samantha Ma. Here are her five favorite spots to go in Beijing. (See more top fives here.)

Tun (map): The best ladies night in town! Big drinks to lighten things up, and crazy dancing. A great way to release your stress after a hard week’s work – and free to boot.

Red Moon (map) (the one at the Grand Hyatt, not the one in Sanlitun): Great lounge band that performs Western and Chinese classics, making use of traditional instruments like the erhu and guzheng. And great cocktails!

Salud (map) (Sanlitun): I liked their spiced rums. Sitting outside on a weekend night watching Sanlitun go by is fantastic fun.

Danger Doyles (map): A great bar  and the rooftop is perfect on a nice summer night. The pool table is a little beat up, but there is hardly ever a wait, and they have free pizza on Wednesdays.

Xiu (map): Bejing’s new “it” bar really is nice. An elegant atmosphere, good drinks (although pretty expensive), and great live bands when I’ve been.

Before I list some bars that will show the Australian Football League final this Saturday, a quick primer – for the newbies – on rugby terminology:

• Goal: When the ball is kicked through the big posts; worth six points.
• Torpedo kick: A kicked ball that spirals through the air.
• Handball: When a ball is “punched” as a way to pass it to another player.
• Double-dingo ticketyboo: Two players giving high-fives after a score.
• One tinnie too many: A player performing as though he had too much beer the night before.
• Going Dame Edna – Cross-dressing on the field.

(Confession: I made up the last three.)

There will be plenty of tinnies – translation: beers – at Danger Doyle’s (map) and The Den (map) for this 12:30 PM match between the Geelong Cats and St. K.F.C. (about the latter team, I feel obliged to make the “can we call them the Holy Fried Chickens” joke). My mate is a huge Geelong fan, which was doing well in its last finals until I showed up and started rooting for them. At that point, they became the equivalent of a row of camels licking the dew off the rail line just as the Indian Pacific train blows through from Sydney to Perth.

The doors open at 11 PM at Danger Doyle’s, which is holding the party with the Beijing Bombers and Australian Chamber of Commerce. Tickets are RMB250 for members, RMB300 for nonmembers, and that gets all-you-can-drink sodas, wine, Aussie beers, and selected cocktails, as well as all-you-can-eat BBQ.

The Den, as evidenced by the huge tarp inside the place, is also going the all-you-can-swallow route, with a menu of meat pies and beers for RMB100.

Winner of the Miss AFL contest (SMH)

Photos to come…

What restaurants and bars would I visit after leaving Turpan, a three-hour drive from Xinjiang’s capital of Urumqi, early in the morning and arriving in Beijing early in the afternoon? A question I have asked myself since childhood thousands of time hundreds of times never. But I do have an answer. Here is my itinerary for winding down after spending nine days in Ningxia and Xinjiang, most of them in the latter spot, where I found myself unable to use the Internet or SMS.

Le Petit Gourmand (map): As much as I enjoyed putting away kilo after kilo of tomatoes and potatoes, melons and grapes, noodles and lambs on the trip, I needed an old favorite: the club sandwich. While the manager is new, the sandwich, with about a dozen layers as well as sides of fries and salad, continues to offer excellent value at RMB44. So does the “American” coffee, the first non-instant java I had in almost two weeks, at RMB15. Oh, and it appears that LPG has finally added to its five-CD collection. I won’t miss hearing that CD of “My Way” remakes over and over and over again. (Note: In other Tongli area news, Cheers (map) still has that “decorate” sign in its window, while Cosmos Lounge, just around the corner from Cosmos Hot Dogs (map) in the southern entrance, has its prices listed outside.)

Union Bar & Grille (map): Iced tea. Refreshing unsweetened iced tea (RMB20; refills free). I considered ordering my favorite dish, the eggs Benedict, but decided to save it for the weekend. Instead, I went to…

Danger Doyle’s (map): Through this month and next, Wednesday means free pizza from 3 PM to 10 PM. With its wood-fired oven, this place pops out better-than-average pies, and I washed down my pepperoni version with a pint of Stella. The only downside: the table of freeloaders who ordered pizza, but no drinks, and were abusive to the staff to boot. Perhaps not only a “drink purchase required” clause is needed but also, given this is a sports bar, red and yellow cards for boorish behavior.

Purple Haze Bistro (map): A substantial crowd on hand to catch the weekly live jazz. This week’s act was No Name Trio, an outfit that features two guitars and an accordion, plays what one member describes as “French gypsy jazz”, and even slipped in some Elvis Presley. Good music, good vibe…

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...

Some happenings from the past week or so. As always, click the word “map” beside each venue to get its map, or to get its address sent to your phone for free in either Chinese or English, courtesy of Mobile Native.

Stone Boat (map): A nice crowd on hand Saturday night to watch Panjir play. This is one of the few places in the city center that you can visit and feel you are not, well, in the city center. Good music, good vibe, good times. By the way, based on more than four years of experience, here is a guide to drinks at The Stone Boat: wine = generous pour, beer = average pour, mixed drinks = miserly pour.

Klubb Rouge (map): There is talk of this place, the inactive part of a trio that includes Danger Doyle’s and Drei Kronen 1308, going through a makeover and reopening with a new mission, though a launch would be months down the road. More to come. And once again, kudos to Klubb Rouge for the most surreal PR conference I have attended.

Union (map): If there were an award for the gap between food value and service quality, this place would rank among my favorites. From Toaster-gate and Coffee-gate to the inability of servers to distinguish “rye” from “white” toast to being slow in delivering that initial coffee and then providing refills when only a sip has been taken, this place has had more than its share of moments. To give three example from this past Sunday:

1) The wireless was down for the fourth straight time though a staff member eventually got it working.

2) A friend and I asked for two orders of eggs Benedict and received one order of toast that we were told to share. Shades of Toaster-gate… So if I order an eggs Benedict, I get four pieces of toast, but if we order two eggs Benedict, and thus pay twice as much, we get the same mount of toast?  “If you want more toast, just ask,” I was told. Seriously, if it is a matter of cost, reduce the side of butter, since there is enough there to butter ten slices of bread.

3) Approximate exchange between me and the waitress:

Something to drink?

Coffee.

What kind of coffee?

Just a coffee.

You mean cappucci…

Just a coffee. A regular coffee. Just a regular black coffee.

[Still looks confused]

Could I have the menu, please?

[Hands me a food menu]

Could I have the drinks menu?

[I point to the word "coffee" on the menu]

That one.

Coffee.

Yes, a coffee.

How many?

Seven. No, I am joking. One. One coffee.

I realize these are not huge issues, the staff is very nice, and apparently it was the waitress’s first day. But on the other hand, Union is rather pricey. And if spots such as Le Petit Gourmand can provide decent service, then surely Union can pick up its game. Speaking of which…

Le Petit Gourmand (map): When I couldn’t get wireless at Union on Saturday, I headed here with DJ Chunky. I have written it before, I will write it again – that RMB35 chicken sandwich with salad and fries is a superb deal. But remember: bring an iPod because this spot repeats the same songs over and over and over again, over and over and over again, over and over and over again (ad infinitum).

Cheers (map): This spot, best known its live Xinjiang music on the weekends, is open again, though c0-0wner Leo – and his oil paintings – no longer appear to be in the picture.

Danger Doyle’s (map): Traffic is picking up at this place and it seems to have become a favorite with some of the city’s models on Friday’s ladies night.

The Den (map): For late-night sports viewing, can anyone beat this place? It seems perpetually full whenever there is an event on – whether it be rugby, cricket or the Wimbledon final – and that is most of the time.

Stadium Dog / Fubar: Look for a soft opening of the hot dog joint within the next week or so, with the bar to soon follow.

Kiosk (map): The two-floor second branch of this Nali Studio favorite is open. Look for the bright pink building across from Workers Stadium North and a block east of older Purple Haze. And expect the same high-value burgers.

Solana (map): With the winter blues gone, most seats near that strip along the waterfront – faced by Sex and Da City, HLG, et al – were full Friday night. But expect to drop some coin – we stopped at Lantung where the Corona is RMB45 and a so-s0 Mojito is RMB55.

Cosmo (map): Finding this place open seems to be a hit or miss proposition, as one reader reports dropping by five times and finding it closed on every occasion. Hopefully the kinks are soon worked out.

Pepe’s Pizza (map): Look for this spot to re-open this week with a new design and menu as well as a kid’s party area upstairs where the little ones can make their own pies.

Bling (map): I didn’t make it for the Playboy dancers – I find the stage versions are never as good as the books, uh, I mean, magazines. But an SMS from a fellow bar-goer stated that the dance floor was full of “Russians boogying to ‘Beautiful Girl.’ It’s like Bling and Chocolate have swapped intended clientele”, while another stated that the dancers are “really quite nice. And they claim to have made their wacky go-go costumes themselves.” Since I make my own Speedos, I guess I missed a chance to meet some soul mates…

Le Petit Gourmand (map): Given this place has finally uploaded some new music, and hopefully discarded that CD with a dozen versions of “My Way“, I have renewed hope for world peace, for an end to global warming, and for public relations to send out bar announcements sans smiley faces and multiple exclamation marks. By the way, LPG’s sandwiches, including the club pictured above (RMB44), are tasty, good value, and come with fries and salad.

Union Bar & Grille (map): Despite plans each weekend “to boldy go where no man has gone before”*, I find myself at Union at least once for brunch. The food is consistently good, whether in terms of the basic breakfast, the eggs benedict, or the omelets. And at RMB45-RMB55 per plate, with RMB20 for bottomless coffee, I find it among the best-value brunches in town. Now, if they would only work on the service. (* Star Trek is being released in Beijing this weekend and I had to get in at least one reference. Now, which bar is going to take advantage of this momentous event and come up with a Tribble burger?)

Danger Doyle’s (map): Love the Monday free pizza deal (management says it gave out 85 pies last night), like the beer selection and the rooftop, and I might someday enjoy the ladies night if there were more females there than at Destinations on a given night (true, I arrived with DJ Chunky around 1 AM, but still…). DD’s also has the NBA channel which means people can catch basketball games that air after 10 AM (that’s when the place opens).

Note: I have also caught NBA games at The Goose and Duck (open 24 hours, though the slingbox feed for the last game was choppy), The Rickshaw (which has the NBA channel and is open early mornings), and The Den (which airs the games shown on CCTV and Bensports, though the latter service is unfortunately down at the moment).

Maxim’s Solana (map): I went to the launch of online vino retailer mywineshop on Sunday. The cool weather made that new hedged-in patio an enjoyable place to try a half-dozen wines and mow down a heap of appetizers – the locally produced foie gras was particularly good.

The Den (map): Same old, same old. By the way, I am not a big fan of interventions, but if anyone sees me going solo on The Den deep-fried combo again, please get out the tranquilizer gun.

ex-Cross Club (map): This spot is on the verge of reopening and I hope the decor inside is a few steps above the rainbow colored lights outside. People tell me the guys behind Cappuccino, the currently gutted bar that is on the northernmost  corner of Sanlitun Bar Street and best known for oudoor lights that emulate the LED equalizer lights on a stero, are involved. Can anyone confirm this?

The Irish Volunteer (map): See here.

Danger Doyle’s (map) is extending last Monday’s free pizza deal to every Monday in May (from 5 PM), because thin-crust pies is what Italian Irish bars are all about (and haggis, we can’t forget the haggis). Anyway, I popped in for the inaugural event last week and discovered the following:

- Each patron receives a free six-slice pizza.

- If that is not enough, you can have a second. DJ Chunky, with an image to uphold, put down a pair of pies. (He pondered a third until I threatened to put on a bulletproof vest as protection against his heart inevitably exploding. Now I understand why this place has “Danger” in its name.)

- Martinis are RMB20 on Mondays. One customer described them as “OK” in taste and good in value.

- There is also some kind of beer special, as our three bottles of James Boag’s came to RMB72 rather than the RMB90 I expected.

Danger Doyle’s has other specials during the week, including a deal where you pay full price for your first draft, then receive 10 percent off the second, 20 percent off the third, and so on, until eventually you get one for free (if you make it that far). See the photo below for details (click for bigger version)…

See also:

• Danger Doyle’s: Free pizza, RMB20 martinis, rooftop chilling tonight
• Pub patrol: Super Bar Street, Purple Haze, Danger Doyle’s, Club Juicy Spot, and more
• Glenn Phelan to re-launch Stadium sports bar as Danger Doyle’s

Irish bar Danger Doyle’s (map) – located in the former Stadium sports bar site on Workers Stadium East – will serve free pizza from its wood-fired oven from 5 PM tonight. Monday is also martini night, with drinks at RMB20 per glass.

Last week, I wrote about my mixed experiences at Danger Doyle’s. Yesterday, I arrived with five people at 1:30 PM for a menu tasting. I won’t write about the food, since our mission was to provide feedback  – and ours was mixed – to help finalize the menu for the rooftop deck. But I will note that after the tasting, DJ Chunky and I retired to the deck to finish off the bucket of Coronas – six bottles for RMB120 – our table had ordered. We stayed for three hours - chilling, chatting, and enjoying the afternoon breeze, with the jackhammers at the new Soho providing a slight annoyance.

This is a strength of Danger Doyle’s: You can park downstairs at the bar or at a table, upstairs near the pool table, on the back deck (shaded against the afternoon sun), or spread out on a lounge chair on the rooftop deck. I suppose that could also be seen as a weakness, namely, that it will take a momentous effort to fill this space. But the potential is there, and if Danger Doyle’s can continue to improve its service and deliver on reasonably priced drinks, and soon turn into reality plans for a BBQ and spit on the roof, this would provide another excellent outdoor space in our city.

Plenty of end-of-week drink deals about town, from the two-for-one drinks special on Thursday at Mesh (map) to ladies night on Friday at TUN (map). Here are a few newcomers:

Club Juicy Spot (map) replays last Friday’s opening night special with free Sangria from 9 PM to 2 AM tonight.

The Saddle Cantina (map) holds Boozecham tonight, with an Aussie BBQ (what does that mean? Shrimp Prawns on the barbie?) from 5 PM to 10 PM. Aussie beers Crown Lager, James Boags, VB, and XXXX, American micro brew, and vodka cruisers for RMB20.

Danger Doyle’s (map) is holding “Femme Fatele” on Friday night, with free cocktails for the ladies from 8 PM to 11:30 PM.

Stadium (map) sports bar will re-launch as Irish pub Danger Doyle’s tonight (Friday), with Glenn Phelan (ex-Paddy O’Shea’s, Frank’s Place, et al) at the helm. Free drinks from 8 PM to 10 PM, with blues outfit Black Cat Bone playing at 9 PM.

The Boat (map) marks a year afloat this Saturday. The anniversary party starts at 5 PM with free drinks and food. Admission is free before 9 PM, RMB40 after, with DJ Dexter providing the music.

For those seeking a full filling experience, Nanjie (map) now offers all you can and eat drink, daily from 5 PM to 9 PM, for RMB50.

The seventh edition of the Spirit It cocktail class series is this Saturday and focus on American drinks, including the Grand Mojito Martini, Orange Crush, Mint Julep, Raspberry Fizz, and a July 4 shooter. The class (RMB220) is from 5 PM to 7:30 PM in the Grand Millennium’s Havana Bar (map). Email bobariels@gmail.com to book a seat.

Kokomo (map) will literally have the roof off this Saturday as it opens up its deck to take advantage of the good weather. Specials on drinks.

Those out Solana way can check the “Orchid Escape” at Lantung (map) on Saturday from 9 PM. Expect plenty of flowers, tuk-tuk rides, and half-price tapas until midnight as well as Tsing-tao, Heineken, and two cocktails (The Lemongrass King and Royal Apple Pie) at RMB15.

The sports bar rivalry in the Sanlitun-Workers Stadium corridor is bound to intensify now that Glenn Phelan (formerly Pavillion, Browns, Frank’s Place, and Paddy O’Shea’s; currently The Stumble Inn) has taken over as GM of Stadium in the China View complex.

Phelan plans to re-launch the place as Irish bar Danger Doyle’s on April 10. Expect free house drinks and German home brew (from Drei Kronen 1308 next door) from 8 PM to 10 PM, with blues outfit Black Cat Bone providing the music. Stadium is under the same ownership umbrella as Klubb Rouge and Drei Kronen 1308, but has drawn few customers despite having an excellent two-floor layout and design, a deck that can fit hundreds of people, a state of the art draft beer system, and pool tables, dart boards, and table-top shuffleboard.

Phelan says that patrons can watch their favorite sports, with commentary, upstairs, while those downstairs will get live music – an Irish musician is being flown in to play four nights a week from late April.

If Phelan can place Stadium on the sports bar map, it will mean an increasingly crowded field in this area of town, which includes The Pavillion, The Den, Hooters, The Rickshaw, Luga’s Villa, Blue Frog, and Paddy O’Shea’s. He plans to have more than 80 beers, including five on tap, and high-end whiskeys. The food will range from pizzas courtesy of a wood-fired oven to favorites such as bangers and mash. Beer prices will range from RMB20 for a pint of Tsingtao to RMB50 for Guinness, while house mixed drinks will be RMB25.