Is #024 the Bar/Bakery/BBQ/Botique of the Future?

A silvery experience has taken over the building just north of Nali Patio in Sanlitun. #024 is Beijing’s latest... is there even a word for what it is? As a bar, bakery, café, fast food restaurant, boutique all wrapped into one, the place has imagined itself as the future of consumption in the capital.

When I walked in, I could tell immediately from the font on the walls that this dazzling new venue shares some relation to a little Xingfucun noodle joint called 23 Seats. But to say that #024 is the sequel to 23 Seats would be like saying that Romeo and Juliette is the sequel to Sonnet 18 – it’s a far more ambitious project. It’s the kind of full-on experiential place that’s common outside of the Fifth Ring Road, where rent is cheap, but instead, it’s right smack-dab in Sanlitun, and dwellers of that neighborhood may be passing it daily.

In fact, they’ve taken over all four stories of the building, though for the moment the second floor is still under development. For now, the main action is all on the ground floor. It’s an enormous, gleaming space with the bar and bakery as its center point, a barbecue sandwich counter in the corner, and, next to that, a music listening station with over-ear headphones hung above transparent chairs.

Silver-painted oil drums converted into tables dot the room, each with a glass top and some unique landscape housed within – purple or orange sand, crystals and geodes of various colors. Practically everything else is also silver, including the bathrooms, which take up the entire accessible part of the third floor. Inside each toilet pod thing, it’s easy to feel like you’re about to take off into space. The silver even extends outward onto the patio and walkway which carries you over a small pond.

I took a pass on the bakery, seeing that it was rather typical, but I did try the signature sandwich, which fell firmly in the category of fast food, but fine for that category. The spicy sauce served with it, however, was excellent.

Of more interest was the bar – an entire wall of the center square is dedicated to cans of their own beer, while another holds the wine, Chinese liqueur, and their own brand of whiskey done in the style of a scotch. I had a glass of the latter and was surprised to find that, while nothing extraordinary, it was quite alright as a sipper, especially considering that it's made in Henan and cost only RMB 28. The wine, also the brand’s own, comes in a laboratory flask-shaped bottle that adds to the futuristic aesthetic.

In all, there’s a wow factor to the atmosphere that goes beyond anything else in the neighborhood, and it will be sure to attract, if not overwhelm, new customers and tourists for some time. But with a just-okay product line, it’s highly unlikely to become anyone’s regular watering hole.

#024
24 North Sanlitun, Sanlitun Lu
三里屯路三里屯北24号

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Images: Joey Knotts