Great Friend Outdoors Club: More Than a Beer and a Climbing Wall

Fangjia Hutong is like a magnet for small businesses with character. From El Nido, Fang Bar, to Ramo, from MoxiMoxi to Antlers, the Great Brickening of 2017 proved a heavy blow to these back-street establishments, but many have survived and in a show of resilience, a number of new venues have even popped up, including Great Friend Outdoors Club, opening earlier this month.   

Unlike the booze-heavy west side of Fangjia (think El Nido, Cellar Door, Peiping Machine, etc.), Great Friend Outdoors Club sits on the east side, and doesn't hide its scars from the recent bricking over, but instead makes them a little easier on the eyes with splashes of color and a blackboard wall covered in chalk doodles and autographs from attendees of the bar's soft opening.

The bar has 12 beers and a nitro coffee on tap

The venue is legitimately relaxing and features several stools propped up around it, 12 taps behind the bar (to be rotated periodically), and a blackboard on the right with the details of the beers. Those include local and domestic microbrews, such as Fumo IPA (RMB 48), Tengyun Wheat Ale (RMB 38) from Harvest, Film G Milk Stout (RMB 48) and Tiaodong Who IPA (RMB 45) from Wuhan No. 18, Beijing Gose (RMB 45), NB Wheat (RMB 38), Vanilla Coffee Stout (RMB 48) and Heifeweizen (RMB 38) from NBeer Pub, Osmanthus Honey Ale (RMB 38) from Shenyang Laotao, and Diaistic Cider (RMB 45). There are also a bunch of popular beers in the fridge, such as North Coast, Ballast Point, Rogue, Dogfish Head, and Brewdog.

One slightly odd aspect is that the flights here come at set rates: order either a flight of six of the odd-numbered beers for RMB 129, or an even-numbered one with six tasters for RMB 139, which also includes the cider. Ok, sure. The strange part is that if you pay for the RMB 139 flight you still can't have your pick of the beers.

Weightlifting Stewed Pork Shoulder (RMB 98) is a must try

For sustenance, we tried the Weightlifting Stewed Pork Shoulder (RMB 98), which was a surprisingly good Beijing rendition of German roast — the meat so tender, perfectly seasoned, and the skin soft and bouncy, covering the fat tucked between it and the juicy lean meat. Take your pick between the three different sauces that it's served with: a Chinese soy bean sauce with smashed garlic, a Thai sweet chili sauce, and a German mustard. It also comes with pickles and a whopping six french fries (yes, we counted), which seems more than a little stingy.

Other mains include roast chicken (RMB 98), stewed pork (RMB 35), chicken feet (RMB 38), pickles (RMB 10), as well as other assorted bar food (RMB 10-30). We recommend the in-house made spicy peanuts (RMB 10), seasoned with star anise, chili, and spices, which go particularly well with beers or just by themselves.  

Climb up to the private room on the second floor

To test your level of drunkenness, you can then tempt fate with a climb on the bar's miniature rock-climbing wall, which reaches all the way up to the private room on the second floor (just kidding, don’t do that).

The 350sqm space is replete with three floors and a nice terrace, all carefully designed by two graduates from Tsinghua University. The effort shows and provides Great Friend with an atmosphere that is conducive to spending a lot of time in the bar, hanging out with old friends or making new ones. The fitness aspect of the bar will run through the team's plans to hold seminars about hiking, climbing, and tracking at the pub, which you can find out more about by joining their WeChat (ID: y591783).

The staff is friendly and willing to walk newbies through their concept (or order a beer) and the venue is designed in such a way that the atmosphere is immediately pleasing, giving the impression that with Great Friend we will be great friends.

Great Friend Outdoors Club
Daily 10am-11.30pm. 12 Fangjia Hutong, Dongcheng District (6994 5950)
野友趣： 东城区方家胡同12号

Photos: Tracy Wang

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