Beijing Boyce

Joop Shen, who’s worked at China Doll, The Bank* and (most recently) Mingle over the past year, is moving to Project H, a large restaurant, lounge and deck development in Sanlitun’s Nali Studio that management says will open by the end of January. Shen will serve as general manager.

Billy Kawaja, executive chef at the Canadian Embassy, is also on board at Project H and will head up the French-Chinese restaurant, the Asian tapas menu in the lounge and the grill menu on the deck. Kawaja is known best for his brunch menu at Café St. Laurent.

Meanwhile, the management behind Project H, which runs establishments such as Alfa and Le Hugo, plans to open a second Muse in Nali as well as a strip of five bars nearby. More details on the latter to come soon.

* A series of SMS messages from The Bank announces that pole dancing will be featured every Friday night.

Mingle opened in the basement of Margherita, around the corner from Tongli Studio in the building formerly housing The Bund.

Joop Shen, who’s bouncing about the Beijing bar and club scene faster than a Xiali cab changes lanes - note: he’s held positions at China Doll and The Bank in the last six months - is involved, though this is a cozier fit and it will be a challenge to keep a lounge feel given the temptation to take advantage of the sound equipment no hand — we’ll see if Joop can work his magic with the staff, theme and layout.

Another bar nomad, Glenn Phelan - The Pavillion, Browns, and TRIO (Frank’s Place) - will soon be running his own gig as Irish bar Paddy O’Shea’s is projected to open next month near A-Che and Dine and Wine. Look for an interview here with Glenn later this week.

Sir Campbell T informs that a new bar called White Rabbit opened in Nurenjie on Friday night. Time enough to visit this weekend there was not, so I’ll aim to check this one out in the near future.