The Bar: First Floor and 2F Add Another Level

The management team made such a good fist of making First Floor and 2F bona fide Beijing hot spots, that you might reasonably muse what would have become of the area had it not been for those two bars in the last couple of years. Now, after a short time out of the game, they’ve embarked on a new project together.

The Bar, up on the third floor of the Sanlitun Youth Hostel building around the back of the much-maligned Sanlitun Houjie is, let’s say, a challenge. If you can see beyond the relative inaccessibility of their new space (up to a third floor spot only reachable via a converted fire escape), you’re rewarded with a pleasingly familiar scene.

The vast main room (complete with intimate offset chambers) brings to mind lost Friday nights at First Floor, while a look at the shelves and the chalk board assures you that drinks quality hasn’t been compromised, a la 2F. Parallels with its successful predecessors are everywhere, but then, why change a winning formula?

Also try: First Floor, 2F

The Bar. 3/F, Youyi Youth Hostel (100m west of Sanlitun Bar Street, east of Sanlitun Hospital), Chaoyang District 朝阳区三里屯酒吧街往西100米三里屯医院东面友谊旅馆3层

By subway: 900m northwest of Tuanjiehu (Line 10)

Photo: Sui