Year in Review: The Venues We Bid Farewell To, PT. 1
While not as long as its predecessor, 2021 has been a year filled with twists and turns, making us all the more ready to say farewell to it. But Beijing wasn’t a bad place to spend the year, so in 2021 Year in Review, we’re taking a look back at the best and worst of times in the capital from this year that was.
Every year, it is our sincere displeasure to take stock of anything and everything we said goodbye to. This year was no exception, as 2021 was marked by more than a few notable exits from the capital. In this, the first installment of our We Bade Farewell To series, we take a look at some of the restaurants, bars, and livehouses we lost. Better grab a box of tissues, this one'll make you teary eyed.
"Temple created a space for musicians to freely express and experiment." – Daniel Vuillermin
Mere weeks into the new year, fans of Beijing's live music scene and its bands both old and new were dealt a tragic hand when Temple Bar announced they would be turning the volume down to zero, and exiting stage left indefinitely. Largely regarded as one of the only venues where rookies could rub shoulders with veteran acts without having to pay through the teeth to play, the space served as a springboard for some of the country's most iconic groups and its absence reverberated throughout the year as musicians scrambled to find a new home.
As LiveCNMusic's Will Griffith wrote in his send-off, "Temple Bar was like a godsend, a sanctuary for no-frills rock and roll kicks that wasn't afraid to dive into the deep end of delirium. A blackhole [sic] of disorder, musical mayhem, unchecked temptation, and the most uproarious late-evenings best left out of the history books."
And so Dirty Bar Street exhaled its final breath
We couldn't even get through January without saying goodbye to another stalwart of the city – this time in the F&B scene – when the last vestige of Taikoo Li's glory days, First Floor, announced that it would be slinging the last of its pints and Western-cum-Pan Asian cuisine on Jan 30. Citing the continued impact of COVID-19, the bar wrote on its official WeChat account that "a lot of businesses are facing [an] unprecedented sever test. Unfortunately, we didn't survive this disaster." And thus closed First Floor's decade-long legacy that paved the way for so much of the international dining and expat atmosphere we now take for granted.
Boxing Cat always kept a wide range of brews available at any given time
February may have been relatively uneventful, but alas, it was merely a bit of quiet before the March storm that claimed Boxing Cat Brewery within the month's first week. At the time, a representative told the Beijinger that the closure was due to "strategic restructuring" and that the brand was looking to open another location in the capital "soon." Unfortunately, however, some nine months later and we're yet to hear any updates on that new location.
Nevertheless, having landed in Beijing in 2017, it didn't take long for the Shanghai-based crafters to ingratiate themselves into the community at large thanks to their delectable line of beers, massive Halloween blow-outs – they claim to have hosted the first-ever major Chinese Halloween party in Shanghai – and ample space which, ironically, made them a prime location in the days of socially-distanced Covid dining. In fact, this one stung particularly badly as Boxing Cat was kind enough to host our very own socially distanced Pizza Cup Final Taste-Off in 2020.
After establishing themselves as a solid brewer, Prodigy finally decided it was time to open their flagship gastropub...Unfortunately, it was not to last
The March madness continued to rage when, over in another corner of Sanlitun – specifically, Xingfucun – the bold newcomer that was Prodigy Brewing was forced to turn off the taps less than a year after opening. In no uncertain terms, it was a risky move to launch their gastropub when they did – we're talking the heyday of Covid in April 2020 – but it was a risk worth taking. After all, it's not the quantity of time you spend with someone, but the quality, and we certainly enjoyed slinging back the brand's unique brews while tucking into their ambitious burgers.
At the time, Prodigy's team told the Beijinger that "due to the financial constraints and travel limitations of our founders, we are going to have to close our doors. Not being able to come to China and brew our craft beers and enjoying being a part of our taproom has truly been a devastating blow…While we are disappointed, all the friends we have made eases the blow. Keep drinking craft beer and growing this industry which will always be a passion for us." Rest assured guys, we have definitely kept drinking craft beer and supporting the growing industry, but you are missed terribly.
Here's to wishing Chef Jeff and his family a happy, healthy 2022
You know, when you line all of these up back-to-back it becomes achingly clear just how bad a year Sanlitun had, as another legend of the scene, That One Place, also announced in June that it would be shuttering its doors after a decade of business. Originally operating as a nail salon and cocktail bar under the name Frost Nails Coffee and Cocktail, the restaurant concept soon took over, and so too did That One Place establish itself as a community watering hole. Unlike many spots on this list, Covid was not cited as the catalyst for their closure, though operator Chef Jeff did lament the toll it took on his beloved staff.
No, instead, it boiled down to that age-old reason of wanting to spend more time with family. As Chef Jeff explained earlier this year, "My friend and I were talking and he says, 'I just realized I only have four more Christmases and four more new years and four more birthdays until my daughter goes off to college.' And it really hit me. And I was thinking I only got five. That's it. My family is a big part of the reason why I am closing down this place. You just don't get that much time to spend with your family."
Whereas musicians lost a piece of the scene with Temple closing, Beijing's stand-up comedy circuit lost one of their own when Cosí Cosí called it quits
Finally, by the middle of the year, Sanlitun got a much-needed reprieve from its seemingly endless string of closures, as 2021's next business to fold was 798's Cosí Cosí, a relatively short-lived café and bistro that ended up rising to the art enclave's top spot for food and drink on Dianping. Marked by an enormous dinosaur sculpture that was gifted to the café by an artist with an affinity for the humble caffeine slingers, Cosí Cosí was owned and operated by two women, Ivanna and Claire. For better or for worse, however, Ivanna is seemingly too damn good at what she does, because in addition to the café she also runs her own PR firm, and after reaching such an astonishing level of success in such a short amount of time, she decided to bow out of the F&B industry and instead refocus her energy on helping other people and businesses flourish. When asked by the Beijinger if there was another café in her future, Ivanna replied, "I knew a guy who opened a shop when he was 80. I might like to do that too."
If you still want to support the Glou team, sign up for their Drinking Buddies platform at WeChat ID 啤友汇Drinking Buddies
And as the year came to a close, we returned to Sanlitun for the end of another short-lived endeavor, Glou, the taproom owned and operated by the team behind beer delivery platform Drinking Buddies. As is wont to happen in Beijing, Glou's October demise – as well as for a number of their neighbors – was penned by upstairs tenants in the Central Park building they occupied. For all intents and purposes, it was a contentious relationship from the start, but as we all know cranky neighbors are not to be trifled with and often win out over pesky party people. As such, Glou quietly packed up and left. And though they were eager to find a new spot, nothing materialized quick enough and that search has since been put on the back burner.
And last, but certainly not least, we bid farewell to a number of establishments that, while they may not be household names, are no less deserving of recognition for the time they spent serving our fair community. In memoriam of…Lucky Las Vegas, Happy Bites, The Cavern Club, Lonely Us, Pi Italian Wine & Restaurant… you will be missed.
READ: Good Morning C Good Night A, the Year in Chinese Internet Slang
Images: Will Griffith, Dianping, Uni You, courtesy of Prodigy Brewing, That One Place, Cosí Cosí, and Glou
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