A couple updates about tomorrow night's gathering at Sasha's. First, we forgot to mention the wines that will be included in the half-price drink special. They are: Santa Rita 120 Sauvignon Blanc and Wolf Blass Eagle Hawk Shiraz/Cab/Merlot. Second, lots of people have asked1 for more information about the music that will be played at the Happy Hour, so we have included a list of artists featured on the playlist under "Music" below. Again, here......

You are all invited to join us Thursday night at Sasha's for the first Shanghaiist Happy Hour in a long, long time (nine months, to be exact). We think we have come up with a plan to avoid a similarly long gap between alcohol-related gatherings — the first Thursday of every month, we'll have a Shanghaiist Happy Hour featuring half-price drinks (and perhaps other special and great things) at Sasha's. And, as usual, these "happy......

Just because we’re on the other side of the world from Ireland doesn’t mean that there won’t be plenty going on for St Paddy’s Day over here in Shanghai. This year, March 17th — the date when all of us are a little bit Irish — inconveniently falls on a Monday but fear not, the Emerald Isle’s Shanghai contingent are celebrating early with a bunch of events this weekend. Ireland Week 2008 has been going......

We got a last minute heads up on a electronica duo playing at Mao tonight that should get early evening blog readers off the computers and into the club. Hailing from Japan, and named Miami, they are bringing an interesting 8-bit electro/violin mix to Shanghai. Tickets are 50rmb and include a free drink....doors at 9pm. Mao - 46 Yueyang Lu, near Dongping Lu, 岳阳路46号，近东平路 Abe Deyo is Shanghaiist's Music Editor. Email tips, recommendations, news and......

Kitchen fetishists, we know you're out there: For those of you who enjoy cooking at home, now you can add sexy cookware to your kitchen arsenal. Pantry Magic, which calls itself Asia's favorite place for specialty kitchen supply, is opening their first store in Shanghai in the middle of this month. From their press release: Pantry Magic carries a complete product line of more than 2,000 items from pots and pans to brightly colored mixing......

Photo from Tim Wieringa taken today on the corner of Dongping Lu and Wulumuqi Lu. Update: Looks like the waters have now subsided, and we can go to Tequila Sunrise after all! Share with us how you see Shanghai, or China! Simply post your photos on Flickr, tag them with "shanghaiist", and we'll select one favorite image per day. Or you can simply email your photos to photos[at]shanghaiist.com.......

Shanghaiist has been feeling very French of late. After wondering when Paul was going to re-open and hanging out at Bar Rouge's "Excusez-moi" party... well, we had dinner in La Crêperie - Shanghai's new and so far only eatery devoted to crêpes from the Brittany region. La Crêperie enjoys a quiet location in the heart of the French concession at the crossroads of Dongping Lu, Yueyang Lu, Fengyang Lu, and Taojiang Lu (or if you......

Thank God it's Friday, and it's two and a half hours left to the Shanghaiist Happy Hour! Come alone, or with friends, colleagues or dates! Come right after work, or come late! When: TONIGHT, June 15, 7 pm to midnight Where: Abbey Road, 45 Yueyang Lu, near Dongping Lu, in the former French Concession. Tel: 6431-6787 Highlights: Drinks 50% offMusic: Beatles covers galore!Free finger foodCome dressed as a Beatle (or beetle) and get a free......

Twenty-six hours until the next Shanghaiist Happy Hour ... and we've got our work cut out for us. We have to sort through more than 12 hours of Beatles covers songs — an amount that is illegal in most countries. Thanks to our readers (and BitTorrent) we have unearthed some gems, though, and you can see the entire list as it stands today after the jump (believe it or not, we still hove some downloads......

We ask because for our June 15 Happy Hour at Abbey Road we are piecing together a playlist made up of all Beatles songs sung by other people. Personally, we are partial to just about anything by Elliott Smith, but we know there are many, many options out there — the Beatles are the most covered band in music history (or so we read somewhere). Last year, The Guardian had a nice little rundown of......

When: Friday, June 15, 7 pm to midnight Where: Abbey Road, 45 Yueyang Lu, near Dongping Lu, in the former French Concession. Tel: 6431-6787 Highlights: Drinks 50% offMusic: Beatles covers galore!Free finger foodCome dressed as a Beatle (or beetle) and get a free drinkLots of outdoor seatingEveryone is invited! This is your chance to go to a Beatles bar and not hear one song sung by the Beatles! Of course, the playlist will consist of......

Shanghai. It is all happening. Here's the proof: Friday, June 1st The Millionaire Fair Tired of your staid millionaire lifestyle? Shanghaiist is. Well, you better join us as we swing by the Shanghai Exhibition Center this weekend to get some new ideas. No. 1000 Yanan Road, Shanghai. Big Beer Bonanza at Kommune American Beer Craft Partners have iced thirty different beers from ten different breweries. The rest is self explanatory. A beer-filled night wouldn't be......

Sometimes we get nostalgic for the spring of aught-four, and afternoons and evenings whiled away outside at the original Cotton's, on Yueyang Lu near Dongping Lu. The bar that occupied the space after Cotton's forced departure was to be avoided at all costs and then came Freelance, which despite helping Shanghaiist throw a damn fine 80s party, never really caught on for whatever reason. And so now we have Abbey Road, which we told you......

Shanghaiist isn't one to get up too early on the weekend to go out and buy groceries or produce; we prefer to watch the back of our eyelids. But we know that some of you do like to do active things each weekend morning. Personally, we dread the thought of hitting Carrefour, Lianhua or Hymall at this time, let alone any form of shopping on a Saturday morning. So the thought of hitting a gourmet......

Turnover is the name of the game in the Shanghai restaurant and bar biz. So, just a few months after Freelance called it quits, a new bar/restaurant is ready to give it a go at the same location. It's called Abbey Road and, yes, it appears as though they are going with a — wait for it — Beatles theme. From the PR email today: Shanghai's Abbey Road, bar and cafe has an open and......

In a former blogging life we crowned Vegetarian Lifestyle the best vegetarian restaurant in Shanghai. That may very well still be true — we just got an email from a vegetarian who agreed with our assessment — but we don't go there much anymore since we moved from the neighborhood ... and because we discovered a new vegetarian place right around the corner from our new apartment. Call us lazy, call us fickle — or......

It's possible that we just caught the recently opened Piccone Live Music Bar on a bad night, but honestly the most interesting aspect of our experience was the toilet in the men's bathroom. We checked out Piccone (we're not sure where the name comes from ... perhaps the owner's last name?) because it pitched itself as a live music venue, and it came along at time when other supposed music bars and legit live venues......

Editor's note: Sorry for getting this up so late in the day. But if you still happen to be stuck behind a computer, there is plenty of time left to show your love for Australia! This isn’t the latest personals ad from Shanghai’s Craiglist, but a call to all Shanghai resident Aussie cobber digger mates to celebrate Australia Day. January 26th signifies an important date in Australia’s history. For most Australians, it represents an opportunity......

The prize package for best 80s outfit at our Happy Hour this Friday sure is heating up. In addition to a bottle of Solid XS Vodka donated by our host Freelance Bar & Grill, the lucky winner will also get two items kindly donated by the self-described "sexiest menswear store in Shanghai" -- MANifesto. (We will force the winner to take a couple Shanghaiist T-shirts off our hands, as well.) The MANifesto prizes are an......

Shanghaiist wants to know: Is anyone else planning on looking like an idiot Friday night? Not that it will stop us -- we're actually strangely excited about reliving fashion nightmares of our youth -- but we just want to be emotionally prepared. For those who have no idea what we are taking about, Shanghaiist is having an 80s-themed Happy Hour this Friday at Freelance. All are welcome. There will be cheap drinks, free food, 80s......

Did you realize that July 28 is the 20-year anniversary -- to the day -- of July 28, 1986?!? We're glad we noticed it when we did -- because that gave us just enough time to throw together an 80s-themed Shanghaiist Happy Hour at Freelance Bar & Grill (we are cool with the place now) to mark the momentous occasion. Here's all you need to know: What: Shanghaiist Happy Hour - “I Love the 80s”......

Poor old DJ Sasha swung through Shanghai last year and was roundly savaged by the media and just about anyone who attended his gig. Shanghaiist wasn’t there (darn it!), but among the complaints we heard lodged were these: Ticket prices. RMB 480 for general admission; RMB 1080 for VIP. A VIP ticket (yes, some were actually sold …) provided little else but access to an upper floor which meant looking at the tops of lots......

Shanghaiist wasn’t joking when we said yesterday that the city was crowded. Thousands upon thousands (upon thousands) flocked to the Bund last night for ... well, for no apparent reason. There was no display of fireworks -- that happened on the Friday night -- no entertainment, no access to the riverside promenade. Nothing. Just lots of inflatable hammers. We were also there, though we regretted it deeply. Particularly when our taxi stopped for about 45......

Last weekend’s immensely successful staging of Shanghai’s first Asian Gaelic Games tournament has ensured that the event will return to China’s commercial hub next September, when teams from across Asia will once again compete to take home the Derek Brady Cup. This year’s unlikely winners were the Dubai Celts, who pipped Hong Kong to the post in extra time, with the ladies trophy collected by feisty Beijing, a team that lost every single one of......

A final party plug before Shanghaiist lugs a shitload of T-shirts and raffle prizes over to the British Bulldog Pub. We had a couple last-minute additions to the raffle prize list (below), so be sure to check it out one more time. (Raffle tickets are 10 kuai, by the way, and five for 40 kuai. Entrance, of course, is free.) There are two threads about the party currently running on local message boards. One controversially......

Not sure if you heard or not, but we're having a party on Friday. And while people seem genuinely excited about the great live music, the cool prizes (see below) and the chance to meet Shamus, we all know that what will really pack 'em in the British Bulldog Pub are the Shanghaiist.com T-shirts! (Play along, folks.) Yep, Friday will be your first opportunity to purchase these custom-made, 100-percent-cotton wonders that have local fashionistas foaming......

Not sure where you are right now, but we're pretty sure we know where you will be exactly one week from now -- somewhere in Shanghai saying, "Oh shit, I forgot about that Shanghaiist party." And that would be too bad, because for a bunch of bloggers, we've actually organized a pretty (if we do say so our damn selves) damn good time. And by good time, we mean semi-cheap booze*, great live music and......

On Friday, September 16, Shanghaiist will officially turn 67 days old. Sounds like a reason to celebrate! So, on the night of Sept. 16, head on down to the British Bulldog Pub for drink specials, great live music and the chance to win some pretty damn nice prizes. The party is open to everyone, and those who bring a printout of the party flyer (which has yet to be designed ... check back soon) will......

And you thought it was just a Canadian bar. (Did you, really? I mean, they do have a Canadian map on the wall. But they also have this mantra posted, in big block letters: REAL MEN EAT BEAVER.) Shanghaiist ended up at the Eager Beaver last night after a late dinner at Anadolu -- home of the 18 RMB beef doner wrap and the 25 RMB can of Tsingtao. At the Beaver, bottles of Tsingtao......