Beijing Boyce

… new lunch menu.

Any mention of this place (map) in Beijing brings giggles and jokes about mammary glands. Example: Who has the biggest breasts at Hooters? The chickens. (Yawn.) Frankly, I prefer to make fun of people who wear baseball caps backward or perch sunglasses on their heads while in a nightclub, both avoidable acts, but to each his or her own humor.

Anyway, I had not visited Hooters for over a year. But after being handed a flyer in front of China View, and finding myself famished, I stopped in for another look.

The 17-item lunch menu includes both Chinese and Western dishes, from a garden salad and corn soup combo for RMB22 to a Cajun chicken burger for RMB48 to Thai fried rice with salmon and soup for RMB32. And each includes a soda – we received free refills – with a coffee or tea an extra RMB10.

On my first stop, I tried the Buffalo chicken burger (RMB38), available at different levels of spiciness. The breaded patty, in a sesame seed-topped bun, was huge if a bit greasy and came with a side of curly fries. (If someone could take this bun and The Rickshaw (map) patty, we would have a perfect combo.) On my second stop, I tried the chili hot dog (RMB38) – the bun outsized the wiener but nonetheless had tasty toppings and, of course, it came with those curly fries.

Overall, I found the food decent value and the experience good, given that the waitresses are efficient, friendly and in most cases, speak above-average English. For those planning to make their first visit, know ahead of time that the staff wears short shorts and does dance routines that cover musical genres from hip hop to disco to country.

Also, this provides an alternative to The Den (map) next door, where I generally lunch when in the area. I like many dishes on The Den’s RMB45 lunch menu – the chef’s salad, for example, is a tasty affair of chicken, beef, ham, and mozzarella surrounding a mountain of lettuce, onions, black olives, and more, and comes with a soda or coffee. What is not so good is getting nickled and dimed (example: not being told that if I order a diet Coke instead of a Coke I have to pay more), having to pay for water, and so on.

Also, re Hooters:

- The two-for-one happy hour is from 3 PM to 6 PM, Monday to Friday, and this includes coffee.

- Wings are RMB1.99 from 6 PM to 9 PM on Wednesdays.

- And the place also retains one of the city’s odder Champagne deals. Buy a bottle of Dom Perignon and get ten wings for free.

The only thing I would change? I’m no fashion maven, but nylons with short shorts?

2:45 PM? Check. The Macarena? Check. Congo line? Check.

Before I give a wrap-up of Super Bowl viewing venues…

The New England Patriots lost the game – as well as the first 19-0 season – and it is easy to place the blame. Most would cite the Patriots failure to stop the New York Giants from scoring a crucial touchdown in the dying minutes. The truth is more nuanced. It is found in Beijing, in a bar called The Goose and Duck, on the body of one man – R.C. Robinson (hereafter known as He Who Shall Be Blamed / HWSBB).

Let me provide you the play by play. The Giants lead 10-7 in the fourth and final quarter. The Patriots piece together a stirring touchdown drive that gives them a 14-10 lead, a drive that inspired HWSBB to yell I believe a half-dozen times, with 2:42 left to play. The Giants need to do what seems near impossible – march the length of the field against the NFL’s best team to score a touchdown and regain the lead.

HWSBB is ecstatic. He wears an off-white cabled sweater – The Sweater – with a large Patriots sticker on the front. He wore it when he arrived, he wore it during the first three quarters, he wore it when the Patriots scored. Now he does the inexplicable. He takes off The Sweater!

Nearby Patriots fans sense a jinx factor. “The Sweater is lucky!” “Hey, don’t change anything until we win!” “Put The Sweater back on.” “If you don’t wear The Sweater and the Patriots lose, I’ll write a post about how it was entirely your fault.” That last one comes from me.

Not only does he not put The Sweater on, but he drapes it over a chair after he peels off the lucky Patriots sticker!

A few minutes later, the Giants quarterback miraculously evades a handful of groping Patriots and hurls a pass to a heavily covered receiver who catches it against his helmet and maintains his grip while falling to the ground in what is known in wrestling circles as a back-breaker. The Giants score, ruin the Patriots perfect season, and it’s all due to HWSBB and The Sweater.* (I don’t expect this will tarnish his sterling community service record of charity fund-raisers, entertainment events, and entrepreneur programs.)

On to the venues:

The Rickshaw – By game time, the place had not an empty seat and offered all the promise of a raucous morning. I stood on the steps, one eye watching the game and the other watching meal after meal whip by. You simply could not comfortably add more people, unless you put some chairs and a TV set on the roof for the die hards. Hey, not a bad idea.

Hooters – The place had no signal and this translated into a lot of disgruntled fans. About 30 people remained into the second quarter, eating breakfast and hoping the game would come on. I have a hunch that Hooters may be the victims of playing by the rules.

Here’s why. Two years ago, I helped organize a Super Bowl party at a hotel for the Seattle-Pittsburgh game. A venue check the night before found everything ready, NFL China donated footballs, mini-helmets, and silver coins as prizes, an ex-Seattle Seahawks cheerleader agreed to give them out, and the breakfast buffet the next morning looked great. We watched the pre-game show and as it approached kick-off time, the channel switched to… swimming. (Backstroke, I believe.) ESPN Star Sports in Singapore listed the game as available in China. It wasn’t and the hotel had no legal means of getting the signal. I’m not sure if this happened with Hooters – I’ll try to find out.

The Den – Just as I went through the threshold, an employee jutted his hand in front of me and at a sign that read, “RMB 50 – breakfast, including coffee and tea.” The Den, which typically offers good service inside, seems to have lost a few steps at the door of late in Ye Olde Hospitality Department.

The Pavillion – About 20 to 25 people gathered in an area adjacent to the bar to watch the game. I grabbed a coffee and watched the rest of the second quarter.

Then, as I have for the past three Super Bowls, I jumped in a cab and headed for the Goose and Duck / that’s Beijing party. This is the first one to be held in Goose and Duck’s new digs and the place is vast to say the least. I would guess more than 300 people had seats with a decent view of that thrilling finish, after which HWSBB finally put on The Sweater.

* On the other hand, he could make a killing on E-bay by selling The Sweater to giddy Giants fan.

9:15 PM, The Den, second floor

Blogging live with Special K and Miss P from the brand new second floor of The Den, which the staff inform us – with some arm twisting – we are the first to patronize. Special K had the first Carlsberg poured. Unfortunately, no one else is upstairs to celebrate with us, but the first floor is packed. Susan, the lone employee up here, is incredibly friendly, in case anyone from The Den’s management is reading. She informs us that more people will soon be up here and, lo and behold, customers four and five just showed up.

By the way, we just left Hooters, which was also packed.

The crowd was diverse, with plenty of younger Chinese and numerous families, and had a good vibe. I think this place is easier to grasp if you consider the Hooters girls simply as cheerleaders who occasionally smack into one other when they do their collective dances. By the way, they almost have “Mickey” down.

We stuck to beer, although you get ten free wings if you order a bottle of Dom Perignon – we recommend the crispy-skinned ones for your champers. We watched televised sports included women’s softball, women’s nine-ball, and guys racing cars with trailers attached to them.

All in all, better than I expected, though Special K was upset about something that we can currently and possibly never ever talk about (more details later).

The lady bar touts and substance pushers seemed sparser on Sanlitun North the past few weeks. A recent stroll down the main drag attracted only six “sexy girl” solicitations, in contrast to the usual dozen, and not one “Hey man, want some stuff?” was muttered as I walked the side streets to Apertivo. Where hath the intrepid intruders gone? Perhaps they took advantage of the new Beijing-Tibet express and are on summer leave. Or maybe they were turfed by the notorious security guards at nearby Tongli Studio (true, no bodies have been found, but a telling sign would be if the area’s kebabs suddenly tasted gamey). Whatever the reason, any break from these — let’s be generous – carbon-based life forms is as refreshing as when strong winds occasionally dilute Beijing’s air pollution. Unfortunately, it’s usually just as short-lived. / Speaking of Apertivo, I’ve been there twice this month. The service is reasonable, it’s a nice place to chat with friends on a pleasant summer evening, and things would be even better with an upgraded by-the-glass wine selection. / Across the street, Saddle offers a minimalist menu of burritos, Spanish fried rice, salsa and chips, and fajitas as well as Pepe Lopez, Camino, Jose Cuervo, Olmeca and Conquistador tequilas. These brands cover the less-than-100-percent agave end of the tequila spectrum and some premium varieties would surely be welcomed. Saddle also has something called “Brett funnel” on Fridays, which involves chugging a beer via a tube for 10 kuai, and is not for the faint of stomach. / The Pavillion has a two-for-one happy hour, 5 to 8 PM, that covers house wines, cocktails, soft drinks, and beer, excluding Guinness and Kilkenny. In addition to an excellent patio, The Pavillion also has: 1) proper wine glasses; 2) one of Beijing’s more impressive Whisky selections; and 3) a slight identity crisis, since upon arrival patrons may come across anything from an alcohol-free graduation party to a beer-fueled rugby-mad crowd, with things thankfully tending toward the middle. / Maggie’s has upped its bottled Qingdao to 30 kuai from 20 kuai. Otherwise, it’s the same old, same old, which means hot dogs out front, reliable music inside, and an ambience that doesn’t live up to the former locale on Gongti East. / Shunyi-based sports bar The Pomegranate had a high-tech summer as it added a video projector, 42-inch flat screen, and wireless Internet access. My suburban friends tell me this is a good spot to sip a few beers, eat some pub grub, and catch a game. / DJ David Lindinger will spin all-plastic sets of “nujazz, groove and house music” at Q Bar on Fridays during September. This is a bit surprising since some owners were once strongly opposed to a DJ and since patrons seem to love the current ambience, which includes blues and jazz tunes. Q Bar seems to be drifting from the cocktail-first culture of First Cafe and Midnight, where two of the owners cut their teeth, and this will no doubt worry some long-loyal customers, including yours truly. I mean, this is like the city-specific that’s Beijing putting a huge brochure-like picture of Thailand on its cover (oh wait, it just did that, or do I have a copy of that’s Bangkok in my hand?). Or like me adding a dozen book reviews to my bar newsletter (oh wait again…). / Speaking of which, rumblings abound that Keiko Shirata, who owned First Cafe until it was chai’d about a month ago, is planning to open a new spot in Beijing. / Each of my four visits to Rui Fu has found this lounge/club increasingly busy and fun. My initial reservations have been cancelled by its spirited groove, interesting clientele and decent music (though a bit loud last time). The cocktails are a problem. As oft mentioned elsewhere, Rui Fu is a place to see and be seen, with last Friday featuring a marathon of seeing and being seen that left my ocular nerves exhausted and thus, having saw and been sawn, I resolved to wear an eye patch next time and thus maximize seeage and being seenage while minimizing strain (that is, when I return from my vacation at a coastal apiary - a sea and bee scene.) Putting preening aside, Rui Fu’s menu includes numerous pricing oddities such as Johnnie Walker Red and Johnnie Walker Black both at Y35, suggesting the latter will increase in price with the club’s popularity. Let’s wait and see (and be seen). / Capone’s plans to open a restaurant in Beijing. The general manager says his aim is to have “one of the biggest if not the biggest wine selections in Beijing.” / Also coming to the Jing: Hong Kong’s Park 97 and Middle-class America’s Hooters. / Finally, there are lots of choices out there for tonight, Friday, September 1. Frank’s Place will hold an end-of-summer party with all-you-can-drink Freixenet sparkling wine (7PM, 100 kuai) and its weekly pool tournament (8 PM, 50 kuai per person, winner takes all). Summergate will have a tasting of South Australia’s Kingston wines at Face Bar (7-10 PM, 100 kuai). Stone Boat has Muwen playing (9:30 PM), Q Bar sees its inaugural DJ night, and Rui Fu apparently has DJ Edmund, a friend of a friend from Taipei, spinning tunes.

(From Beijing Boyce XXIII, first emailed on August 31, 2006)

The oldest non-hotel bar in Beijing, Frank’s Place is back after a facelift and a change of scenery. A good portion of the city’s long-term expatriate drinking crowd showed up last Saturday night for an invite-only launch party and reminisced about the place’s original 1989 version, which was beside the City Hotel and reduced to rubble last year.* The reincarnation, across from Rosedale Hotel, is a high-end sports bar that offers excellent decor, layout and seating options, including sofas, booths, bar stools, and decks front and back, all of which were full of boisterous patrons fueled by a free flow of wine, beer, and barbecued burgers and hot dogs.

Manager Chris Adams had things smoothly running on opening night and Glenn Phelan** has joined the staff after a recent stint at Browns. He obviously copied the latter’s CDs, given the excess of old Michael Jackson songs. Mercifully, these were broken up by classics such as “Jump, Jump” by Kriss Kross and “Borderline” by Madonna. (Okay, I’ll stop being sarcastic now. Welcome back to Beijing, Glenn.) The homemade “Frank’s Place” theme song was a fun touch.***

Frank’s Place seems likely to be popular with older expatriates, including those who patronized the original bar, who drive home to Shunyi from work downtown, who one cynical acquaintance later suggested are stuck in 1996 (ouch!), and who know one or more of the 24 investors (those I’ve met fancy a drink or two, preferably with friends, which should help business). The bar should draw some locals as well as people coming to the area to visit Frank’s, its accompanying restaurant and wine cellar, and nearby establishments, such as Il Casale and Nhu. As for prices, Guinness is 50 kuai per pint, house red and white ranges are 40-60 and 30-45 kuai respectively, and standard mixed drinks are 40 kuai. A pint of Qingdao will cost you 25 kuai.

Frank’s is on the main floor of a three-story establishment called Trio, which includes The Park Grill upstairs (opened June 4) and wine-centric The Cellar downstairs (set to open June 13). The triumvirate reportedly cost around USD1 million (including rent). The Cellar is unique to Beijing, with pint-sized suits of armor and wrought-iron doors up front, an arched roof, stucco and brickwork in a Southern European style and, for members of “Club 88,” onsite storage space for up to 32 bottles of wine. ASC Fine Wines, sole TRIO wine supplier, held a Penfold tasting in The Cellar during the launch party and it proved to be an enjoyable, though potentially noisy, place to swirl a glass of red and nibble on cheese, olives and bread, before heading upstairs to sit on the deck.****

* Frank’s Place is named after Frank Siegel, now of John Bull Pub and Sequoia Cafe fame, who started the bar in 1989 and then sold his shares to Russell Probert and Roger Dutton in the late-1990s. The original venue was chai’d last year and Probert has since opened The Pavillion, on Gongti West Road, while Dutton is part of the team that re-opened the new Frank’s Place. Frank and Jennifer Siegel were on hand for the opening.

** Glenn Phelan originally came to Beijing to work for The Pavillion last fall. Early this year, he left the Pavillion and took a position at Browns a few days after it launched. In May, he left Browns and returned home briefly – I seem to remember him saying something about brining back some Whisky from the smallest distillery in the land, but I digress – and has now not only joined Frank’s Place, but also a list of intriguing Beijing bar people, which includes ASC Wine Owner Don St. Pierre, bartenders George Zhou and Echo Sun, and Agent Red Wolf.

*** Roger Dutton says that the theme song was “written, performed and produced” by 3Media Group (his media company) in Beijing and by 26 Music of Vienna, the latter being “the yodeling connection.” The song is about meeting, eating and drinking, he says, and “the very bad jokes on the ‘un-cut version’ were recorded by [investor] Haemish Campbell and me.”

**** And on the deck, enjoying glass number eight or so, Roger, Frank, Jennifer and I were making sounds with our mouths that we, at least, considered to be words, and stumbled on one of those ironies of irony. In short, Roger got inspiration for some seating in the new Frank’s Place from an Irish pub in Ulan Bator. The Irish Pub had earlier gotten its inspiration from John Bull Pub. And since Frank Siegel manages John Bull and created the original Frank’s Place, it seemed like everything had come full circle, completed the circuit, was all’s well that end’s well, it’s a small, small world. Well, this all *seemed* profound at the time. By the way, Frank will soon open his second Sequoia Cafe, in Sanlitun, and says that Hooters, for whom he consults, will open a Beijing branch close to Worker’s Stadium.

(From Beijing Boyce XVIII, first emailed on June 8, 2006)