Always a friendly place

I'm going to jump on the bandwagon in support of The Local as well. Kenn runs a solid joint - the service is good, the food is great, and Kenn himself is among the nicest people I've ever met in Beijing. I've been here over 9 years and I've seen businesses come and go in the area of South Sanlitun and I truly hope The Local stays successful. I won't attack the person who clearly had such a bad experience that it prompted her to write numerous reviews on multiple websites, but I will defend the concept that a drink special requires you to purchase and receive everything at the same time. As a bar manager myself in Beijing, who runs a similar special (buy two get one), we have the same requirement. It's not unreasonable to require a person to purchase them all at once, because on a busy night it's really difficult to track multiple customers through multiple staff. It's terribly unfortunate that someone had a bad experience at The Local, but on multiple visits (whether busy or quiet, with friends or on my lonesome) I've always had an enjoyable time. Cheers and thanks to The Local and their staff.