Migas Sanlitun to Shut Down After Final NYE Party
This New Year's Eve will be a night of melancholy celebration for Sanlitun socialites, as the beloved rooftop restaurant and lounge Migas will host its final shindig before shutting down. Staff at the Mediterranean-styled venue made the announcement via an official WeChat post early this week (Dec 21), which declared:
"This New Year’s Eve party is even more special, even bigger, where there is even more to celebrate, because this New Year’s Eve Party is Migas Sanlitun's final party. Yes, that’s right, after NYE Migas Sanlitun will close its doors for good. After over seven years, seven glorious years giving heart and soul in the F&B business in Beijing, Migas Sanlitun says goodbye!"
The reasons behind the sudden closure were left vague in the announcement. Instead, it struck a sunny tone and emphasized the prospects of Migas' newer CBD situated venue Migas Mercado: "Why [close?] Because we cannot keep going the way we did, we cannot keep living the Mediterranean life as loud as we did, at least not in Sanlitun, and we don’t want to lower the bar. We keep our bar high and tall in our new location in Guomao with Migas Mercado, the sky is the limit and we move where the limit can still be there."
When pressed for further details, Migas' marketing and PR manager María Domínguez Rodríguez told the Beijinger: "It is not clear because we want to keep it diplomatic. But it is not because the place is not working. Or because we cannot deal with two venues. We can, but not the way we did or the way we want," adding that she couldn't elaborate any further.
Despite the closure, staff told of fond memories that the Nali Patio-situated Migas had given them over the years. Bar manager Francesco Angotti, for instance, told the Beijinger he'll never forget seeing "DJ Spinna ending his set" during one of the venue's parties, before the crowd began "complaining and screaming for him to stay, so he did and played for more than one hour, until morning."
And while Migas Mercado will continue to cater to the snappily dressed set that regularly hit up the original branch for its Mediterranean eats and glamorous, deftly DJ'ed rooftop parties over the past seven years in business (they celebrated that milestone this past fall), the loss of the original branch is already being vocally mourned by fans. That was clear from how quickly the WeChat announcement spread throughout Thursday evening. Coincidently, the venue was recently inducted into the Beijinger's Dining Hall of Fame, along with Biteapitta, for their pioneering contributions to the city's dining scene (read more about that here).
Onlookers, meanwhile, began to wonder whether Migas' closure was part of broader issues at Nali Patio. That doesn't seem to be the case thus far, as managers at neighboring venues like High Town and The Black Moth told the Beijinger they were surprised as anyone else about Migas' departure, and have yet to hear anything about pending wider closures or construction at the complex.
Yet, regardless of whether the rest of Nali Patio remains as is, it's safe to say the complex - and Beijing's broader club scene - will not be the same after Migas rings in the New Year by bowing out of Sanlitun. Read the closure announcement in full here, and see the poster below for details about how you can bid Migas adieu by dancing the night away there one last time.
Images: Resident Advisor, Migas
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