The Cheesecake Factory is coming to Beijing. So is Wolfgang Puck

Whether the hot Beijing summer deterred you from stuffing your face with food, or (like us) you bravely fought through the haze and heat to dig in, it’s now autumn and the slog is over. Fortunately, there are more reasons than ever to pick up your chopsticks and don your drinking cap. 

Here's this month's food and drink gossip.

Shanghai-based South American-inspired cocktail bar, eatery and reluctant nightclub Unico has landed in Beijing, and the scale is truly outrageous. The Beijing outpost is an astonishing threestorey number, sprawling out over the entire rooftop of the newly minted Topwin Mall in Sanlitun. Expect a bonkers club, multiple bars, a members’ club and epic rooftop space. 

We were sad to hear French celebchef Alain Ducasse had scrapped plans for a Beijing restaurant, but all is not lost. Instead, we’re excited over the arrival of an Austrian of equal renown, Wolfgang Puck. Puck will launch a Beijing location in mid-2017, according to sources at Puck’s restaurant in Disneyland Shanghai. And speaking of Disney, having recently made its China debut at the Shanghai amusement park, American chain The Cheesecake Factory will be careening into Wangfujing this winter. 

The team behind local favourite Neapolitan pizzeria Bottega recently launched a sparkling wine and Italian cold cuts bar, Vesuvio. Perched above the roaring Sanlitun pizzeria, Vesuvio serves a range of Italian sparkling wines, craft beer and an exclusive array of top-notch cured meats and cheeses. 

Chef Talib Hudda recently departed from Time Out favourite The Georg, leaving the kitchen in the capable hands of his sous-chef, Bin Wang. Hudda has taken up the mantel of chef de cuisine at the swanky Opposite House hotel’s Mediterranean mainstay Sureño. A menu overhaul and concept tweak are already in the works and will be coming this winter. 

Yonghegong Dajie sandwich shop and purveyor of dangerously cheap hooch Queenie’s has opened a new three-storey branch just north of the shoebox-sixed original on the very same street. With an expanded menu of cheap eats, even cheaper drinks and room to spare, expect more late nights at this lowbrow favourite. 

To atone for the sins accumulated at Queenies, we can look forward to two new Beijing locations from the masters of all things healthy, Tribe Organic, coming to Solana in early 2017 and Wangfujing in summer 2017.