Results tagged “citydiner”

Whilst smoking bans in restaurants and bars seem to be spreading throughout the rest of the world, Shanghai is having second thoughts.

Well, as we reported a while back, the word on the street was that the live music was going to stop completely at the Blues Room (that is, until they told us it was only a temporary hiatus). Fortunately, that has proven untrue, with a new band playing three nights a week. The new group playing there, headed by Willow Neilson, features various musicians and vocalists on different nights. The core group, however, includes Erica Li on vocals, Steinar Nickelson or Sean Higgins on organ, and Nicholas McBride on drums. The trio's name is "Three point strike", possibly a reference to the burgeoning kung fu prowess of the band leader. They rock out with a mix of not only jazz but also funk, afro-beat, soul, and R&B flavors among other musical stylings.

There might be a recession on the way, but American culture is doing just fine. Although we've said nunca más to Taco Bell, but we got the MLB coming our way, Rambo's back in a way that Rocky Balboa could only dream of, and best of all is the surprising news that Dunkin' Donuts is on its way to Shanghai.

For all displaced Americans and tryptophan lovers, consider these lovely Thanksgiving dinner options for tomorrow night in our cozy little Chinese metropolis:

New Burger on the Block: Thanks to the always up-to-date Christine Lu from the China Business Network, we learned that Los Angeles based burger joint Fatburger is planning on expanding big into China, starting with their first restaurant at the Venetian in Macao. From their press release: Additional Fatburger restaurants are scheduled to open in Hong Kong in the coming months: the first on Queens Road East and the second at Jia Hotel in Causeway...

For starters, we have moved the cook-off to the street that runs alongside Bubba's Bar-B-Que (between us and Marriott Hong Qiao). It is a nice, tree-lined street and we're gonna close that sucker down to traffic and allow pedestrians and cooks only. Oh sure, we'll have music, games for kids, and games for adults as well.

Continue reading "Chili Cook-off - the sequel"

Spearheaded by drummer Al Gordon, this new club is the latest addition to the Shanghai live jazz and blues scene. It’s a funky little club, literally one room, but it’s a great space and the band is solid. As the name implies, the place is not trying to be another jazz venue; rather they are concentrating on blues, funk, and soul music–and are starting and ending much later than most other venues. Most nights the club will have live music starting around 11pm, with sets running through till 4am. Al has joining him on guitar Eddie Goltz, who also is a great singer, and Peter Phillips from New York on the keyboards. They are encouraging musicians to join them for jam sessions, which is why they intentionally start the gig so late.

Closing Dish: Cafe Transat fought the good fight with its relaxing terrace and inviting happy hours. Unfortunately, it appears that not even a Shanghaiist endorsement was enough for it to sustain the business that this high-rent district demands. We were taking a break at Bellagio on Taicang Lu over the weekend when we noticed that Cafe Transat across the street had closed shop (picture of the storefront on the left). According to the Bellagio staff, the restaurant stopped operating around two weeks ago.

Now, that felt like a 4th of July party (and some Canadians in attendance said it wasn't a bad effort for Canada Day, either). Hot, sweaty weather. No rain! Hamburgers. Beer. Live music. Water balloons. Hamburgers. Beer. Drinking contests. Fireworks (albeit during daylight). Hamburgers. Beer. Ketchup battles. Some guy from Beijing getting pantsed. Hamburgers. Beer.

The first time Shanghaiist went to Absolute House, it was for Jennifer Gentle, and we weren't too impressed by the venue. Last night changed that, though, as Shanghaiist attended what they could easily say was one of the best concerts ever put on in the city. After a very mediocre afternoon at Dino Beach's Rock It! festival (would it have killed them to serve some beer there?), Shanghaiist headed to Absolute House for a show where everyone danced, jumped, and sang along with MC Ninja. In the meantime, Shanghaiist is going to try to delay their continuing weekend hangover by heading to the City Diner Independence Day Burger Grill-Off and downing a few. See you there! NOW!

As much as you want of the above for 150 kuai.

For those of you who aren't quite ready to prance around in a swimming suit showing off your pasty white, jell-o like spare tire, don't fret there are plenty of quality bands playing in the dimly lit bars where t-shirts are required. The Scoff an energetic (pogo friendly) garage band from Beijing will headline the 2nd installment of 4live's Young Beijing series. At Live bar, Boys Climbing Ropes celebrate the arrival of summer with a final show before 2 members head back to Canada for vacation. If that wasn't enough to keep you busy on a Friday night, Pirates Bar is throwing its hat in the ring with Electronicat and amazing, one man electro/noise pop band from Europe. Saturday the Go Team! will be strutting their stuff at Absolute house, Rock It will be in full swing and for those of you into something a little quieter, the Dream Factory is holding an acoustic guitar night. For those of you into hip-hop or Dj's with skill (not the laptop variety) then head to 4Live for the DMC championship.

Only five more days until the City Diner/Shanghaiist 4th of July party this Sunday — which, yes, we realize is the 1st of July and (thanks to a commenter) Canada Day. But we promise this party, like all Shanghaiist parties, is very Canadian friendly. In fact, this party is open to anyone of any nationality who enjoys food, drink, music and fun. Sound like you?

Click here for info and entry forms!

Enduring eight straight days of work ahead of the Golden week? Take this opportunity to let off some steam and get out and hit what Shanghaiist thinks that Shanghai has to offer before you either vamoose out of town or bunker down to avoid the May 1st Holiday crush.

We are sitting in City Diner, aka the office, making our usual rounds on Chinese blogs and news sites. On our table are two cards advertising a startling development in the diner's drinks list: Brooklyn East India Pale and Rogue Dead Guy Ale are now available for consumption at Rmb40 a bottle.

BlogSpot blocked again, among others

Moon River looks like a diner. It feels like a diner. And, most importantly, it tastes like a diner. The people behind this place got the details right -- the black and white tile floors, the red swivel-top stools and even the colorful curly straws. And we love the huge retro neon sign out front -- it's perfect. They've even got a jukebox (the same one they had out in Gubei) but it no longer works, and -- we just learned this -- did you know jukeboxes are technically illegal in China? An old Cultural Revolution law that never came off the books, we were told.

We've written about Bubba's Texas-Style Bar-B-Que & Saloon, college football and chili before. And now, all three combine in some kind of crazy mixed up Sunday afternoon stew. We are pressed for time -- we are a judge in today's Shanghai Chili Cook-off -- so we will do what we know best: copy and paste:

Good

We SMSed a member of Shanghai's Gaelic football team -- they were known to frequent the Spot Bar -- to get the lowdown on what happened. His take: "There's an old building behind it, they wanted a garden front to it so they ripped it down." Indeed, tearing down the building that housed the restaurant and bar exposes a really nice old villa that we hadn't noticed before. While the house likely doesn't have a bar (and if they did have a bar, they probably wouldn't allow drunk Irish guys to dance on top of it), we have to admit the house is a little more aesthetically pleasing than the Spot Bar was. But our guess is that they will probably block it from street view with a concrete wall of some kind.

Shanghaiist wants to like City Diner. We really do! The food, when it comes, is excellent—miles ahead of Moon River, and just like we would eat at home. The coffee, if it ever arrives, is perfect—just like we would get at our neighborhood café, and it even arrives with warm milk! But ... In the months since City Diner has opened, again and again, the service has been so slow, the managers so rude, and the staff so inept, that we will not go again without hours to spare and patience to give. Two examples:

WARNING: Shallow post alert.

A commenter at another Shanghai forum wondered why we didn't post much on Shanghaiist over the weekend. The easy answer is: Because it was the weekend. But this weekend was busier than most (for us, at least). Before the Happy Hour was the Roller Revival -- lots of fun ... great venue ... great music ... great costumes -- which we managed to escape with all bones in tact. Unfortunately, that is not something all of the party goers can say. There was at least one broken wrist, which shouldn't really come as a surprise since it was an open bar and most of the crowd had wheels on their feet. (Here are some photos.)

... take his word. Jarrett Wrisley, who wrote for Shanghaiist for about 20 minutes last summer, has highlighted tomorrow's event in his "New & Noted" column in SH:

Here's the lineup for the concert:

The Diner will celebrate its hard opening Grand Opening this weekend, and we thought, What a great excuse for another Shanghaiist Happy Hour ... and to drink alcoholic beverages in the morning! Who says happy hours have to be at night?

Three years ago, when this Shanghaiist first arrived in town, the downtown area was THE place to be for quality foreign food. It wasn’t exactly Manhattan (or even Omaha) but it was where you went when the craving struck — for Mexican at Taco Popo, Pizza at Melrose, burgers at Rendezvous Café, and that take-your-visiting-parents favorite, M on the Bund.

A brief note regarding the City Diner we told you about not too long ago: We have learned that it is supposed to open this week, either today or Friday, depending on who you believe. We assume the source that said today is reliable, because he was seated in one of the City Diner's booths working on a computer. We'll explain: We ate at Eat, Drink, Man, Woman on Saturday (delicious, as always) and afterwards decided to snoop around upstairs to see what the diner was looking like. Honestly, it looked a lot like Eat, Drink, Man, Woman -- the same beige pseudo-suede upholstery. We were kind of hoping for some red vinyl and at least one jukebox. The only things that really screamed "diner" were the retro Coca-Cola fridge, the hanging lights and the neon sign outside. So, we figured they still had some redesigning to do. But the guy with the computer sitting in the booth (who we didn't notice at first -- good thing we didn't steal that wine) said it was scheduled to open on Monday. And who would doubt a guy sitting in a booth working on a computer? Well, we would. We just called iiiit!, another one of Eduardo Vargas's establishments, and they said the City Diner will open Friday, but that it didn't have a phone number yet. If any of you decide to go with the computer guy's word, let us know what you find.

Great news out of Jarrett Wrisley's restaurant and bar gossip column this week in SH (especially if you live near Tongren Lu like Shanghaiist does):