Talking Pints: Nick Zinner the Spinner and Celebratory Parties Abound

Happy weekend! You've done well to get here, but how are you going to spend it?

Over in Wudaokou, Lush will celebrate its fine haul at this year's TBJ Reader Bar & Club Awards with a victory party tonight (May 31). As well as a live performance from Bye-Bye Kitty, they'll be celebrating being named "Best for Students" for the ninth year running with their RMB 90 Epic Cocktails (I can personally vouch for their epicicity), as well as other special drinks deals throughout what they're saying will be "a night of crazy fun ... to say thanks for the support of our incredible community."

And Lush aren't the only guys in the mood for celebrating; Beijing's "Best New Bar", Slow Boat Brewery Taproom, will be giving away grog for just RMB 20 between 7pm and midnight to celebrate their win. Congratulations to founders Chandler and Daniel on becoming dads recently, making this a great opportunity to wet their respective baby's heads.

Beijing's burger scene gets a heap better this weekend with the grand opening of 3sums and Burger Bar at Xiaoyun Lu and Parkview Green respectively. Not too sure what's happening at Burger Bar -- though it will also double as a live sports venue -- but 3sums' official opening will go from noon-2am on Saturday (June 1) and will include free-flow booze and food for RMB 100. See this week's Capital Bites for more details.

Cu Ju is finished with some renovation work. The "Outstanding New Bar" has undergone a summer makeover which included some new menus featuring their 60 regular rums (with others available on request), and a new pre-prohibition era cocktail list. They've also introduced an outdoor seating area. They'll celebrate their one-year anniversary with a bash on June 10 with an outdoor barbecue and some freebies.

Right, there's absolutely loads going on over the next few days, so let's get to some highlights:

• DJ Sasha continues a solid run of top DJs in the city tonight (May 31) when he plays at Elements Club.
• A host of top DJs including Chozie, El-Mar, Blackie and Luke Lombe have hit on a new concept of outdoor party. It's called Pop Up Disko and if you want to know more, be at Chaoyang Park from 3pm tomorrow (June 1).
• Elsewhere on Saturday night (June 1), you've a very tough choice; three-time Grammy nominated rocker Nick Zinner of Yeah Yeah Yeahs delivering a DJ set at Dada (RMB 50), or DJs Vincent Suede and Boss Talk throwing down at Paddy's Irish Bar (aka Sanlitun Paddy's) at their Invisible Friends party. Tough one.
• Serk celebrates a year in business with an Anniversary Party on Sunday (June 2). Festivities begin at 3pm.

That's not even close to being all with plenty of other events going on around town this weekend. Check out our events section for more.

Whatever you get up to this weekend, have a great time doing it.