Heaven Supermarket (pt. 2): Shedding Its Hellish Reputation

Let’s just say that we have mixed feelings about the new, secondary venue of Sanlitun’s favorite love-to-hate bar, Heaven Supermarket. As the late George Michael would have lamented, “you gotta have faith [to drink here],” that’s in part because you might not even find it the first time around.

Sandwiched between two night clubs on the east side of Gongti, looking for Heaven feels like you’re on the path to exploring the recesses of stadium hell; do your best to ignore the terrible and thunderous music from Tango KTV, go down the stairs, pass the first bar on the left and continue down the hallway where you’ll be greeted with two plain glass doors – hardly the pearly gates we were hoping for.

Unlike at its old location in Sanlitun which is open 24/7, the apparently fluid opening times during Spring Festival at first left us knocking on Heaven’s door without success, claiming to be open at 5pm, but still shut at 6.30pm. Once you’re in however, you’ll notice another huge difference: unlike its nasty sister, it’s clean here. It’s also sizably bigger, housing 16 massive fridges stocked with beer, including Nøgne Ø, De Molen, Dogfish Head, and Founders, and some varieties that are unavailable at the old location. They also do a good job of providing cheaper beers for patrons stumbling their way into the next door KTV, such as Asahi for RMB 15, Panda, and Reberg. They also have Goose Island IPA, Hoegaarden, Leffe, Stella Artois, and Becks on tap. The food menu has crawled over this way too, featuring the same like-to-live-dangerously “Mexican”-centric and fast food mains and snacks.

If you’re looking for a less lonely drinking experience then we suggest arriving after 9pm, when the bar livens up a little and surpasses the original location with its noticeably dry and stick-free floor, multiple clean toilets, and lack of smoking indoors. For these reasons alone we can see how much effort management have put in to eradicate the hellish image of the old Heaven, and it’s a change that may indeed see us stop by to nab a couple from their robust bottled imports section in the future.

Heaven Supermarket (Gongti)
Daily 6pm-late. B1-100, 6 Gongti Xilu, Chaoyang District (Beneath Tango KTV)
朝阳区工体西路6号B1-100(糖果KTV楼下)

This article first appeared in the March/April 2017 issue of the Beijinger, which you can read via PDF or in hard copy at all of your favorite venues across town.

Photos Courtesy of Heaven Supermarket

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