Joe's Bar and Kitchen: A Refreshingly Straightforward New Sports Bar on Gongti West

While we Beijing barflies are spoiled for choice when it comes to craft breweries and cocktail lounges, good old-fashioned sports bars have become a bit sidelined in this trendier F&B era. Thankfully that has begun to change in recent years, with no better example emerging than Joe's Bar and Kitchen in Gongti.

This refreshingly straightforward bar has several screens situated throughout the joint, allowing patrons to easily spot the most anticipated games, while at the same time not going overboard with the number of TVs (a flaw that bombards patrons at flashier sports bars that opened in recent years).

The target clientele will surely recognize friendly faces upon entry, like Joe Hou, who ran the recently defunct D-One Sports Café nearby, and especially manager Lisa Zhuang, who greeted customers at both D-One and, before that, the pioneering (and also now sadly shuttered) Sanlitun sports bar The Den.

In terms of atmosphere, Joe's is an upgrade over those older, more basic establishments (though sure, their lack of chicness was part of their charm). The interior is spacious with plenty of booth seating. This new bar doesn't go for anything overly flashy, but a simple vibrantly colored paint job and murals depicting football stars give it an exotic, Latin flair without going overboard.

Same goes for the menu. Happy hour starts at 5pm and, generously enough, doesn't end until 10pm daily. Pizzas only cost RMB 40 during that period, and Carlsberg and simple mixed drinks are sold for RMB 20.

Hou stepped in to help run D-One after The Den closed in late 2015. He was a regular at that older bar, which sponsored his football team, The Beijing Vikings. Now he's put his name to Joe's, and he and his wife designed the interior themselves. Hou tells the Beijinger that he wants the bar to be a place for close friends to gather and enjoy a game or a few drinks and some grub.

Anyone looking for an innovative, outside the box, or top drawer venue should check elsewhere. But for low-key, laid-back good times you'd be hard-pressed to find a spot more prime than Joe's, especially in the increasingly slick Sanlitun area.

Joe's Bar and Kitchen
Daily 4pm-2am. 6 West Gongti Road, Chaoyang District (on the north east corner of the complex; head around back from the north end) (6502 9999)
朝阳区工体西路6号

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Email: kylemullin@thebeijinger.com
Twitter: @MulKyle

Photos courtesy of Joe Hou