One Third: A Preview of the Ambitious Forthcoming Club From Sir Teen and BBC
It'd be an understatement to say Douglas Williams and Quinn Johnson hope to up the ante by launching the bar for the owners of Gongti's newest international nightclub, One Third. The most glaring difference is size: Their recently shuttered former spot, Boot, Bottle, and Cigar (aka BBC, one of the many victims of Beijing’s Great Brickening of 2017) was a diminutive 30sqm, the entirety of which could fit in the space behind the bar at this new joint, the vast, 3,000sqm One Third, which is slated to hold its soft opening soon (we'll update this article with the fixed date once it's announced).
Sure, a gargantuan bottle service dance club – outfitted with a small elevator for hired dancers in steampunk garb to ascend to a catwalk above the bar before busting a move – all might sound diametrically opposed to the neat craft cocktail lounge rep that Williams and Johnson built for themselves at their prior, more niche establishment. But that’s why One Third’s owners – who also run the highly popular Gongti dance club Sir Teen – decided to partner with the BBC alums, to adorn this new club with a splash of class and creativity that may have otherwise gone neglected.
Though when we stopped by the Gongti venue (situated in the same complex as Sir Teen, the new Heaven and Joe’s Bar and Kitchen) it was for an extremely early sneak peek, with construction well underway but nowhere near finished, we were happy to see just how spacious the venue is, and to hear about Williams and Johnson’s plans. They hope to serve the drinks at around RMB 80-100 per glass, along with a range of bottled cocktails. They say many of those cocktails will be aged in the 100 wooden barrels behind the bar. Fresh juices, numerous bitters, a range of fortified wines, and plenty of high-quality spirits are among the goodies that they plan to keep in stock.
Johnson likens the team’s vision for the club with those that took New York’s Meatpacking District by storm in the late 90s. And while many of the suave cocktail enthusiasts that frequented BBC might never imagine themselves in a dance club à la Sir Teen, they’d be unable to deny the number of world-class, household name DJs that that venue has attracted in recent months, a feat that its team aims to repeat, if not exceed, at One Third.
“We want to combine craft cocktails and high-quality drinks with bottle service,” Williams says, insisting the two need not be mutually exclusive, but should instead complement each other. And if the venue can pull that tricky, but laudably unique balancing act off, then they’ll likely appeal to a wider range of patrons than most establishments across town. Indeed, a place where dancefloor fiends and cocktail connoisseurs can make an oh-so-rare rendezvous would certainly bring about a welcome shakeup to Beijing’s bar scene.
One Third
6 Workers’ Stadium West Road, Chaoyang District
朝阳区工体西路6号
Photos: Uni, Ken
