New Openings: 1/5 and The Well

1949 The Hidden City, the hip entertainment complex located in a renovated factory behind the Pacific Century Place at Changhong Qiao, can now boast two new nightlife venues: the 1/5 (pictured above, and not to be confused with the 1/5 Taverna next door) in the only original building on the compound, and an outdoor beer garden called Well Bar.

Although the opening of the former was plagued by technical design problems stemming from the age of the building, it’s definitely worth checking out. The design is subtle but cool, with a mix of contemporary and classic influences. Musical direction veers towards songs that have passed the test of time. The genre nights feel clever and informed rather than gimmicky. Over the course of a week you’ll hear the Clash, Donna Summers The The, Howard Jones, Big Country, and Hendrix. It’s quiet enough to chat over earlier in the evening, and builds to a danceable decibel late at night. They’ve got a pull-down projector that will be showing the Olympics during the big bash.

Your correspondent was under the original presumption that the latter was quite literally a well that bartenders stand inside, with a few tables scattered outside – but it is much more than that. Actually, the upper lip of the well itself is enclosed in wrap-around LED screens, which were much more difficult to make to specification than anyone at 1949 initially anticipated, but the result is pretty groovy nonetheless. A spokesperson described the Well Bar (which opens August 6) as hovering like a spaceship at night, with color gradients morphing across the top and sides. The plan is to project the Olympics on a screen outdoors, with a Xinjiang shifu grilling chuan’r nearby.

Neither venue will be accepting hard currency during the Olympics. The plan is to have patrons exchange cash for RMB 40 chips at the gate of the 1949 complex, which can in turn be exchanged for drinks and fistfuls of chuan’r (most everything will be priced in multiples of 40). A grand opening blowout of the entire complex is scheduled for late October.