tbjblog Barfly
There have been some whispers in the vines about bar migrations from Shanghai, may it rot in bougie hell, as if our beloved megatropolis is only now worthy of its kiss-up fun-killers. I’ve always envisioned Shanghai as a tumorous Parisian scoff, and Beijing as a rough-edged D.C. hood – mutually incompatible. Anyway, the Bund swankfest Bar Rouge, which had been rumored to be opening a site in Beijing, is definitely not in the pipeline. My pal Kyle Sun, who runs the place, has stated unequivocally, “Bar Rouge is not going to Beijing yet.” The fault of the misunderstanding lies on the shoulders of Club Rouge, a venue-in-the-works for the Gongti area that is reportedly employing a former consultant for Shanghai’s Bar Rouge. However, the Shanghai burger-and-shooter-den Blue Frog is indeed opening two sites, one in Sanlitun and one in Shunyi’s Europlaza, with openings scheduled for early summer. Jump on that Olympic bandwagon, boys!
Next week will see a few homegrown openings on our streets, with the new Saddle Cantina serving drinks starting next week sometime, and ClubFootball’s new rig by the Southeast Fourth Ring, operating whenever there’s games on. Yesterday I swung by 95 Club, a bit south of Rickshaw, and a maintenance worker told me that after two years of renovations and re-renovations, they’re finally getting ready to welcome customers within the next week or two. And there’s some other damn dance-place under construction in the Revelations corral with an opening date scheduled for the end of March. Mere meters away, the Hidden City complex is looking sweet as all hell, and may be the coolest concept in town since Bus Bar. The venues inside, which include art galleries and restaurants and lounges and bars, are opening their doors on a staggered basis, with the official date set at March 31, with the nightspots serving drinks from mid-April.
The boat across from Indian Kitchen has seen workers tearing out the walls. It turns out DJ @LLEN bought that rust bucket (finally, someone!). Just about anything will be better than the shipwreck the joint has been for the last five years, so I’ve got high hopes.
To wrap up, Lido’s local Cavern has turned into Bar Metro, 88 Club apparently has a happy hour with half-priced drafts (whose standard price has been quoted to me as RMB 5), and the Swire property walled off near Yashow will allegedly play host to a huge jazz-dance club called Le Zazou, with a scheduled opening in June.