New Year's Eve options

There's a poncey new, would-be "French" nightclub - Le Zazou - just opened in Sanlitun (god knows where - tried to find it on Sunday, but came up blank), which apparently has a vodka bar sponsored by Absolut. And during its first two weeks of opening, select vodka cocktails (not all; you have to be careful to check which ones) are FREE between 8pm and midnight. I can see that appealing to a lot of people - rather too many people - tomorrow night. But I'm not confident that the involvement of Absolut will necessarily ensure that the product is kosher. And I am confident the place will be a bit of a shitbox. And it will be a complete scrum on New Year's Eve. We still have 8 or 9 days of that freebie promotion to run, so I think I'll wait for a quiet mid-week evening to scope it out.

There's a free rock concert on in Sanlitun mall development The Village. It was, however, ticketed, and I imagine the tickets have all gone long since. I console myself with the thought that it's (I assume) outdoors, and thus likely to be arse-freezing cold. Also, I doubt if there'll be a bar - or not a very good one, anyway (none of the publicity seems to have said anything about a bar). And of the three bands slated, one I like (SUBS, but I've seen them so many times before), one I have mixed feelings about (New Pants - quite fun, but too poppy for my taste), and one I hate (pretentious miserabilists RETROS - in certain circumstances I can stand them, even begin to enjoy them; but they are guaranteed to bring down the mood at a party with their depressive navel-gazing). So, no, on balance, not too sad to be missing that.

I see there's a big party on at Luga's Villa - which sounds like it's going to be a major alcohol fest. Tickets 100 rmb on the door from 8pm, but a free glass of sparkling at midnight, and big reductions on all drinks all night (I think the local draught is only 5 kuai, and most other things are around half off). Also - gin and vodka available to buy by the bottle for under 100 kuai, and Jack Daniel's for 200 (well, I think in fact it's going to be 198rmb - that 'lucky' 8 thing again) - although I'm not sure I'd trust it to be the genuine article. However, if you really hate your liver, this sounds like the place to be.



My Sanlitun source tells me that Fubar, while not doing anything special for the evening, will be running its ongoing 'Headhunter Happy Hour' promotion - which apparently means that the (very agreeable) 'Happy Hour' prices will be extended all night if there are 60 people in there before 9pm. That sounds eminently doable. I wouldn't want to see too many more than 60 people there, though: I don't like crowds.

My own best beloved 12 Square Metres bar - after protracted and angstful negotiations with two sets of landlords - has finally moved ahead with renting the adjacent house behind, and is going to knock through the connecting wall and start refurbishing on January 1st (at least trebling the effective space.... although we hope it will retain the same cosy ambience), so Thursday could be the farewell for the old bar as we have known it. Then again, JK was hinting that he has other plans for New Year's Eve, so perhaps tonight will be the send-off for "Beijing's smallest bar". Also in my 'hood, newly opened pizza joint Mao Mao Chong (just relocated from the Wudaoying Hutong to the Banchang Hutong, mid-way between Jiaodaokou Nandajie and Nanluoguxiang) will be offering free bar snacks from early evening.... "until they run out". That could be a tempting way to start the evening. [Update: It seems the remodelling is likely to take rather longer than JK had originally hoped, and since New Year's Eve and the subsequent 'holiday weekend' (the 1st - and 2nd?? - is these days a holiday in China, for some strange reason) are likely to be a time of strong business for him, he's deferred the knockthrough until the beginning of next week. Looks like Sunday should be the tearful farewell.]

I guess if Thursday is going to be the last night of 12 Square Metres being 12 square metres, then I'll feel obliged to go there. Otherwise.... well, I don't imagine I'll stray far beyond my usual range. I hate crowds. I hate the traffic jams and taxi shortages we suffer on big party nights. In fact, I hate big party nights: as I think I've said on here before, I even hate Friday nights - and New Year's Eve is just a Friday night times a thousand. The trouble with these mass events is that, as one friend of mine puts it, they are 'Amateur Nights': the occasions when everyone comes out, all the people that don't drink that much and so don't know how to hold it, and all the people that do drink fairly regularly but still don't know how to hold it or are going to overindulge stupidly on this night - all the people I spend most of my life trying to avoid. Almost every bar will be rammed, and the streets will be teeming with unlovely pissheads.

I feel a big curmudge coming on. Unless there's some chance of there being a relatively quiet and normal night to be had at 12 Square, or the Pool Bar, or Amilal.... I think I'd rather stay at home with a few cans of beer and my DVD collection.