Last week I found out that a small bar named 'The Shed' was closing in a few weeks. The Shed lives in a fairly arty district of Puxi, and was originally created as an office by two guys named Matt and Steve - who just happen to be the founders of www.justbeer.cn, the company that imports most Australian beer into China.
They started the company a couple of years ago, and they needed an office. So they rented out a reasonably-sized room at the top of an old residential building in a little laneway along Taikan Rd. Since they were selling beer into China, they decided that they needed a couple of fridges full of cold beer for potential customers to try. In order to drink the beer, they decided they needed a bar - and so, The Shed was born. It's a tiny place - can probably seat less than 10 people at the bar itself, and probably another 10 or so could squeeze in around the edges. It's only opened when the owners feel like it (every weekend during the AFL season) and is usually full of friendly Aussie faces. I went there for the first time a few months ago after I met Matt and Steve out at an event they were sponsoring, and have been back a few times since.
Anyway, after finding out it was closing down (the government is redeveloping the whole area so a lot of businesses are getting kicked out), I decided I'd better go along on Saturday and have a few beers. I made my way over at around noon (an AFL game was starting at 12:30) and knocked on the door...only to get no answer. Obviously I was a little early, so I wandered around a few of the laneways nearby to have a look around. Great place for art lovers as there were a lot of display galleries around, and a number of stores selling all sorts of trinkets. I stopped into a cafe and had a delicious chicken pasta and some even more delicious Coronas (it was pretty hot), and after an hour or so made my way back to the bar to find that Matt had opened it up.
I immediately got stuck in the Pure Blondes, and before long a few more people had wandered in. People kept appearing in fits and starts throughout the day, and at one stage it was pretty much capacity - obviously word had spread about the place closing down. I ended up staying there all the way through until the end of the night at 9, when everyone left to either go home (the smart option) or go out somewhere else (the Andrew option). Total cost for 8 hours of drinking - $AUS20. Nice one.
As I mentioned, I foolishly decided I would go out somewhere else after everyone had gone. After a quick trip home to have a meal and get changed, I went out to Hengshan Rd, and an old favourite - Zapatas. Got in and the place was packed - I can't remember if I've been there on a Saturday night or not, but I'd never seen it so busy. I grabbed myself a beer and before too long I was out on the dancefloor moving and shaking. A couple of guys 'encouraged' me to get up on the bar...and before I knew it, that's where I was. My memories of being at University and dancing at the Icon Bar came flooding back at this point. I spent the next few hours dancing on the bar, getting off to get a drink, getting up on the bar again, repeat. At one point I ran into a guy who is a mini-celebrity here in Shanghai - he's an Aussie guy that's on a number of TV shows on one of the two english language channels - ICS. I didn't really talk to him much, but I remember he was an excellent dancer and showed me up by doing the splits a few timers whilst on the bar. I think I attempted it and almost fell off/did some damage to my groin.
Eventually I grew tired of Zapatas and went off in search of more entertainment. At this time I made my way to Tongren Rd, home of the City Diner (mmm...food) and a lot of extremely dodgy bars filled with working girls...and some working guys that look suspiciously like girls. Anyway, I went into Judy's Too, a place that I knew stayed open until the wee hours of the morning. I ran into an English bloke in there and we spent the next few hours drinking, laughing and dancing on the podiums like idiots. Before I knew it, it was 6am and I decided it was time to call it a night...I mean morning. I'd been going for 18 hours, and it was time for sleep.
Unfortunately, my stupid body clock didn't really let me sleep very much. I was up before 10am on Sunday, and a world-class struggler. I had some short naps on the couch during the afternoon, but by the time Monday came around, I was still hungover and not prepared to go to work. Took a much needed day off and was back to normal by Tuesday, thank god. Note to self: 18 hour sessions are not the answer.
Showing posts with label tongren rd. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tongren rd. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Monday, May 25, 2009
Watching AFL in China - yes, you can see it over here
A few weeks ago I found out about a place named Big Bamboo, which is a bar over in Puxi which shows AFL matches via satellite. They're only delayed by about 2 hours, which means that they usually start here at about 8:30pm local time. I went over on a Friday night and watched Collingwood beat North Melbourne. Not the most exciting game to watch, but hey, it was AFL and I was just happy to see a game for the first time this year. I sat at the bar next to a couple of poms for most of the game and had a great time trying to explain all the rules to them. They admitted that it was a lot more enjoyable to watch when they actually understood what was going on.
Anyway, last Saturday night Essendon and Richmond were playing, so I thought I'd go over and check out the game. The Big Bamboo website said that the match started at 8:30, so I timed my run to get there at about 8:45...and found that the match wasn't up on any of the TVs.
Unperturbed, I figured I'd grab a tasty beverage and that maybe one of the other sporting events they were showing had gone over time and that they'd switch to the AFL in the next half an hour or so. I was mistaken. At this point, the single only other Aussie (Michael) in the entire bar had gotten hold of the manager to ask what was going on. I noticed his accent so introduced myself and tried to get the story. It turned out that the game wasn't actually being shown until 11:30pm - the website had shown the wrong time. Michael decided to go do something else for a few hours, and if I was a smarter man, I would have gone with him. Instead, I decided to tough it out and just keep on drinking.
Unfortunately that meant that I had to sit through the only other two sports being shown - soccer and rugby. I went with the lesser of two evils (rugby) and it actually turned out to be a pretty good game (Queensland versus Wellington or someone). Anyway, 11:30 finally came around, and the AFL came on. Michael and I spent the game cheering for the same side (he's a fellow Bombers supporter) and we were happy to see them come away with a win. The fact that it stayed quite close for the first three quarters was good, as it kept things interesting. During the game, we sampled the different Australian beers they had stocked - I tried a Crownie, a James Boags, a Coopers and a Pure Blonde. I skipped the VB, because noone in their right mind drinks VB if there is anything else to drink. How did they come to have Australian beer stocked in the fridge? More about that in a future post.
After the game finished a bit after 1, Michael went home but I was keen to kick on so wandered up Tongren Rd a little ways to see what was happening. I stopped in at The Spot, but it was completely empty so I walked a little further to an American bar named Mallone's. The band was still kicking along there and there seemed to be a decent crowd, so I stayed for a few more beers. Once that place closed at 3 I walked a little further along the road and stopped in at another bar...but I don't remember what it was called. I think I ended up staying there until 5am before finally coming to my senses and getting a taxi home.
On Sunday...I paid for it. Didn't wake up until midday and had one of the worst hangovers ever. Unfortunately, I'd agreed to go play pool with one of my co-workers and an engineer who's here from Australia for the next week or so. I walked over to his hotel at 3:30pm, head pounding and mouth dry. The guys spent the next couple of hours laughing at my sorry state (although I actually did do pretty well on the pool table) before we had a quick meal and they let me get back to the solace of my living room couch. Very happy when that day was over, let me tell you.
Anyway, last Saturday night Essendon and Richmond were playing, so I thought I'd go over and check out the game. The Big Bamboo website said that the match started at 8:30, so I timed my run to get there at about 8:45...and found that the match wasn't up on any of the TVs.
Unperturbed, I figured I'd grab a tasty beverage and that maybe one of the other sporting events they were showing had gone over time and that they'd switch to the AFL in the next half an hour or so. I was mistaken. At this point, the single only other Aussie (Michael) in the entire bar had gotten hold of the manager to ask what was going on. I noticed his accent so introduced myself and tried to get the story. It turned out that the game wasn't actually being shown until 11:30pm - the website had shown the wrong time. Michael decided to go do something else for a few hours, and if I was a smarter man, I would have gone with him. Instead, I decided to tough it out and just keep on drinking.
Unfortunately that meant that I had to sit through the only other two sports being shown - soccer and rugby. I went with the lesser of two evils (rugby) and it actually turned out to be a pretty good game (Queensland versus Wellington or someone). Anyway, 11:30 finally came around, and the AFL came on. Michael and I spent the game cheering for the same side (he's a fellow Bombers supporter) and we were happy to see them come away with a win. The fact that it stayed quite close for the first three quarters was good, as it kept things interesting. During the game, we sampled the different Australian beers they had stocked - I tried a Crownie, a James Boags, a Coopers and a Pure Blonde. I skipped the VB, because noone in their right mind drinks VB if there is anything else to drink. How did they come to have Australian beer stocked in the fridge? More about that in a future post.
After the game finished a bit after 1, Michael went home but I was keen to kick on so wandered up Tongren Rd a little ways to see what was happening. I stopped in at The Spot, but it was completely empty so I walked a little further to an American bar named Mallone's. The band was still kicking along there and there seemed to be a decent crowd, so I stayed for a few more beers. Once that place closed at 3 I walked a little further along the road and stopped in at another bar...but I don't remember what it was called. I think I ended up staying there until 5am before finally coming to my senses and getting a taxi home.
On Sunday...I paid for it. Didn't wake up until midday and had one of the worst hangovers ever. Unfortunately, I'd agreed to go play pool with one of my co-workers and an engineer who's here from Australia for the next week or so. I walked over to his hotel at 3:30pm, head pounding and mouth dry. The guys spent the next couple of hours laughing at my sorry state (although I actually did do pretty well on the pool table) before we had a quick meal and they let me get back to the solace of my living room couch. Very happy when that day was over, let me tell you.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
11 days of mayhem - day 6
Friday the 10th of April was a massive day/night. The boys went out and did some shopping around Shanghai, while I worked my behind off in preparation for a long weekend in Beijing. I got home at around 7pm, and after a quick change we went out in search of Kakadu.
Kakadu is a small Aussie bar over in Puxi, near Xin Tian Di. Well, at least we thought it was. We'd been given a card by Sam, a girl we met the day the guys arrived, who was in charge of putting together an 'Aussie Drinks' night each Friday night. The card had directions on how to get to the bar, but we showed it to two taxi drivers and they didn't know how to take us there. Finally we just asked to go to Xin Tian Di as we figured we could just walk the rest of the way from there.
After getting directions from a helpful porter and walking for almost 20 minutes, we made it to the bar. We entered to find a much more business-type crowd than we were expecting - it seemed like a much more mature crowd than us, although there were a few people around our age. It was a sponsored event, which meant that beer was half-price between 6:30 and 9:30pm...although this ended up meaning that beers were still $5 per bottle, which I suppose is a pretty reasonable price for an imported beer. It gave me the chance to have a Coopers Pale Ale and a few Pure Blondes, which I haven't had since I've been here, so it was a nice change. We stayed around for about 2 hours and entered into a raffle...and Shotty actually won something. Not the grand prize of a trip to Tokyo, or the second prize which was 4 slabs of Aussie beer...he won a bottle of win and some meat vouchers, which he promptly gave to me. Not being a wine drinker, and not having an oven to cook the meat in meant that the prize was not really very useful. We gave the wine to Sam and the meat vouchers...well, they're still around here somewhere and have expired by now. Never mind.
I had planned on taking the guys to Windows Scoreboard for some cheap beers and pool-playing, but Sam mentioned that she and some friends were going to another bar named 'The Spot', which is on the famous Tongren Rd bar strip. Turns out Friday nights is free margarhita night for ladies from 10pm onwards, so we figured we'd go along and see what it was like. As you would expect when there are free drinks on offer, it was absolutely packed, so we got a table near the entrance and got ourselves some pizza for dinner. We had planned on having a (reasonably) quiet night, since we had to get up by 8:30 on Saturday for our flight to Beijing. Unfortunately, the best laid plans can often go awry. The Coronas at The Spot were tasting fantastic, so we got stuck into them. Shotty and Cookie did a few shots with some of the other people that we met there, and the night was off and running. We spent a few more hours at The Spot and were then whisked away to Velvet Lounge, another bar that stays open for most of the night.
That place was the busiest bar I've ever been to in my life. The somewhat common practice over here of no bouncers on the door meant that people just kept piling in. It was almost like being at Derby Day during the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival - too hard to get anywhere and very difficult to get a drink. Nevertheless, we ended up staying there until just after 4. We had previously considered staying up for the entire night and going straight to the airport in the morning, but a shred of common sense prevailed and we got out of there to grab a couple of hours sleep before our trip.
Kakadu is a small Aussie bar over in Puxi, near Xin Tian Di. Well, at least we thought it was. We'd been given a card by Sam, a girl we met the day the guys arrived, who was in charge of putting together an 'Aussie Drinks' night each Friday night. The card had directions on how to get to the bar, but we showed it to two taxi drivers and they didn't know how to take us there. Finally we just asked to go to Xin Tian Di as we figured we could just walk the rest of the way from there.
After getting directions from a helpful porter and walking for almost 20 minutes, we made it to the bar. We entered to find a much more business-type crowd than we were expecting - it seemed like a much more mature crowd than us, although there were a few people around our age. It was a sponsored event, which meant that beer was half-price between 6:30 and 9:30pm...although this ended up meaning that beers were still $5 per bottle, which I suppose is a pretty reasonable price for an imported beer. It gave me the chance to have a Coopers Pale Ale and a few Pure Blondes, which I haven't had since I've been here, so it was a nice change. We stayed around for about 2 hours and entered into a raffle...and Shotty actually won something. Not the grand prize of a trip to Tokyo, or the second prize which was 4 slabs of Aussie beer...he won a bottle of win and some meat vouchers, which he promptly gave to me. Not being a wine drinker, and not having an oven to cook the meat in meant that the prize was not really very useful. We gave the wine to Sam and the meat vouchers...well, they're still around here somewhere and have expired by now. Never mind.
I had planned on taking the guys to Windows Scoreboard for some cheap beers and pool-playing, but Sam mentioned that she and some friends were going to another bar named 'The Spot', which is on the famous Tongren Rd bar strip. Turns out Friday nights is free margarhita night for ladies from 10pm onwards, so we figured we'd go along and see what it was like. As you would expect when there are free drinks on offer, it was absolutely packed, so we got a table near the entrance and got ourselves some pizza for dinner. We had planned on having a (reasonably) quiet night, since we had to get up by 8:30 on Saturday for our flight to Beijing. Unfortunately, the best laid plans can often go awry. The Coronas at The Spot were tasting fantastic, so we got stuck into them. Shotty and Cookie did a few shots with some of the other people that we met there, and the night was off and running. We spent a few more hours at The Spot and were then whisked away to Velvet Lounge, another bar that stays open for most of the night.
That place was the busiest bar I've ever been to in my life. The somewhat common practice over here of no bouncers on the door meant that people just kept piling in. It was almost like being at Derby Day during the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival - too hard to get anywhere and very difficult to get a drink. Nevertheless, we ended up staying there until just after 4. We had previously considered staying up for the entire night and going straight to the airport in the morning, but a shred of common sense prevailed and we got out of there to grab a couple of hours sleep before our trip.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Massive weekend - part 2
So after I left Windows Scoreboard I was off to the Blue Frog (another $3 taxi ride). The Blue Frog bar is on Tongren Rd, which is a pretty famous bar strip in Shanghai. It's quite a strange sight actually - you turn onto the road, and the first hundred metres or so is packed with a dozen different bars. Each one has a couple of pretty girls out the front and they shout out a welcome and invite in everyone that passes by. The Blue Frog is about the second-last one, so I had to walk past all the others first to get to it.
Upon entering it looked pretty small. The downstairs area has a DJ and bar, and a number of tables along the side. It was quite busy, and initially the only place I could stand was right in front of the bartender as he was mixing drinks. A few minutes later a table freed up, and I was able to sit down and enjoy my (reasonably priced) beer and some complimentary nuts. I had a quick flick through the menu while I was there; they have a pretty good range of drinks (and a hundred-shots challenge that I can't imagine anyone completing), and a good range of bar meals too. It's actually a multi-level place - second floor is a restaurant, and the third floor a lounge area. It'd be a good place to go with a few friends and relax for a bit. I stayed there for a few beers, and then went off to my final establishment of the evening - Studio 78.
Studio 78 is actually only two doors down from Blue Frog, so I didn't have far to go. It isn't particularly well-labeled, but you get into an elevator and go up one flight and there it is. It was bigger than Blue Frog, and actually had a dance floor which was a reasonable size and some very comfortable couches around the place, although it wasn't very busy. There wasn't anyone at the entrance when I walked in, so I wandered straight up to the bar and asked for a pint of Tiger. The barman handed it over and went about his business...and didn't ask me for any money.
Around this time I notice the sign on the table which said 'Open Bar Drinks', and then had a list of drinks underneath it. A lightbulb blinked on inside my head, and my inner child gleefully informed me that I had stumbled across free beer. I suspect that the establishment was having one of those nights (which are quite popular here in Shanghai) where you pay something like $AUS20-50 at the door and get free drinks for the rest of the night. I must have walked in at a time when the door-person was having a break, and so didn't have to pay any money.
Now I don't know about you, but when I get free alcohol of any kind, it's hard to pass up. So although I had been originally planning on only have a few drinks during my bar investigation night, I ended up getting pretty smashed. I think I had 3 or 4 pints at Studio 78, after which time I mustered up the courage to walk out as I knew I had things to do on Saturday and didn't want to be too hungover. I was quite proud of myself actually. I went outside and got into a taxi and got home just after 2. Cost to get home: $AUS10. Awesome.
Saturday I woke up mostly hangover free, which I was quite pleased about. I did a bit of research on the interwebs to determine which bars I would be going to Saturday night. Then I got my gear together and jogged up the road to the basketball courts where I had played the previous week. Got there by 11 and found both courts empty, which was great. However I'd only been shooting around for 10 minutes when a young Chinese guy came up and asked to play one on one. We did that for about half an hour or so by which time a group of guys had come along to the other court. We organised a 3 on 3 matchup and spent the next 90 minutes trying to outdoor each other on the court. It was heaps of fun. By this time it was midafternoon and I was getting hungry, so I made my apologies and left. I made a quick detour up the road to the DVD place I'd gone the previous week to pay them the rest of the money I owed, and then went home for a late lunch.
I spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies, before getting changed and heading out on the town again. More about that in the next post.
Upon entering it looked pretty small. The downstairs area has a DJ and bar, and a number of tables along the side. It was quite busy, and initially the only place I could stand was right in front of the bartender as he was mixing drinks. A few minutes later a table freed up, and I was able to sit down and enjoy my (reasonably priced) beer and some complimentary nuts. I had a quick flick through the menu while I was there; they have a pretty good range of drinks (and a hundred-shots challenge that I can't imagine anyone completing), and a good range of bar meals too. It's actually a multi-level place - second floor is a restaurant, and the third floor a lounge area. It'd be a good place to go with a few friends and relax for a bit. I stayed there for a few beers, and then went off to my final establishment of the evening - Studio 78.
Studio 78 is actually only two doors down from Blue Frog, so I didn't have far to go. It isn't particularly well-labeled, but you get into an elevator and go up one flight and there it is. It was bigger than Blue Frog, and actually had a dance floor which was a reasonable size and some very comfortable couches around the place, although it wasn't very busy. There wasn't anyone at the entrance when I walked in, so I wandered straight up to the bar and asked for a pint of Tiger. The barman handed it over and went about his business...and didn't ask me for any money.
Around this time I notice the sign on the table which said 'Open Bar Drinks', and then had a list of drinks underneath it. A lightbulb blinked on inside my head, and my inner child gleefully informed me that I had stumbled across free beer. I suspect that the establishment was having one of those nights (which are quite popular here in Shanghai) where you pay something like $AUS20-50 at the door and get free drinks for the rest of the night. I must have walked in at a time when the door-person was having a break, and so didn't have to pay any money.
Now I don't know about you, but when I get free alcohol of any kind, it's hard to pass up. So although I had been originally planning on only have a few drinks during my bar investigation night, I ended up getting pretty smashed. I think I had 3 or 4 pints at Studio 78, after which time I mustered up the courage to walk out as I knew I had things to do on Saturday and didn't want to be too hungover. I was quite proud of myself actually. I went outside and got into a taxi and got home just after 2. Cost to get home: $AUS10. Awesome.
Saturday I woke up mostly hangover free, which I was quite pleased about. I did a bit of research on the interwebs to determine which bars I would be going to Saturday night. Then I got my gear together and jogged up the road to the basketball courts where I had played the previous week. Got there by 11 and found both courts empty, which was great. However I'd only been shooting around for 10 minutes when a young Chinese guy came up and asked to play one on one. We did that for about half an hour or so by which time a group of guys had come along to the other court. We organised a 3 on 3 matchup and spent the next 90 minutes trying to outdoor each other on the court. It was heaps of fun. By this time it was midafternoon and I was getting hungry, so I made my apologies and left. I made a quick detour up the road to the DVD place I'd gone the previous week to pay them the rest of the money I owed, and then went home for a late lunch.
I spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies, before getting changed and heading out on the town again. More about that in the next post.
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