On Monday, the 12 Square Metres crowd (well, six of us - we few, we happy few) went 'on the road' to support the inaugural night of new bar Shala - at the far west end of the Jianwai SOHO complex (it's Unit 8816, in the basement garden area between Buildings 17 and 18, the latest additions to the sprawling development, which are actually a little separate from the rest of it, over on the north side of Jingheng Lu, tucked in behind the enormous pink-tinted-glass Reignwood Center... conveniently just five minutes' walk or so from the Yong'anli subway stop). It is the creation of an amiable young Japanese chap called Ji-sun, who has been one of our most regular regulars at 12 SqM over the past 18 months; we'll be rather sorry to lose him now that he's got a place of his own.
It's a pleasant, surprisingly airy space, with a very high ceiling (so high that you scarcely notice the crude ducting and so on above your heads). A bit too light'n'airy for my personal taste: more coffee bar than alcohol bar in its ambience, but eminently comfortable. And there's a long bar made from a single piece of pale wood, very impressive (though a tad low for me). The sub-ground level area is, I think, much more spacious than most of those I've noticed in other parts of this SOHO complex; plenty of light gets down there, and the lawn boasts some amazingly lush and healthy-looking grass (they must water it five times a day!). The hip-hop dance studio opposite is annoyingly loud if you're standing outside, although some of the youngsters it attracts have quite impressive skills; and, mercifully, their "music" doesn't penetrate into the calm of the bar's interior.
At the moment, the drink offerings are fairly limited: a selection of standard cocktails (well made) and mixed drinks, a few top shelf whiskies, and a lone draught beer (Asahi Super Dry - a very pleasant lager, but not quite worth 30rmb, I don't think, when served in a fairly small glass). However, Ji-sun may well expand his inventory in due course; he's got plenty of space to put up more shelving behind the bar.
There's also a brief but promising food menu (there's quite a big kitchen out the back), and I suspect he's likely to be able to make more money off lunchtime deliveries to surrounding offices than from the bar itself: a likely highlight will be the katsu sandwich (breaded pork cutlet with barbecue sauce - all the rage in Okinawa, apparently [although online pictures of it tend to be less than appetising!]).
On the whole, though, apart from the katsu and the Asahi (and a few premium Japanese whiskies and a couple of novelty sake options), he has chosen to eschew any strong Japanese theme for the place; and I wonder if that may be a mistake. The space he's created is cosy, but nondescript; it doesn't yet have any real sense of identity. That may evolve over time, but I rather think that he could do with a stronger USP to get some word-of-mouth buzz going. And I feel a 'Japanese bar' might be a stronger draw - for both Japanese and non-Japanese - than just a 'bar'. SOHO is a bit of a cultural desert, and even Twilight - one of the best cocktail joints in town - doesn't exactly seem to be doing a roaring trade there. On the other hand, the area is, I'm told, becoming increasingly residential; and - apart from upscale hotel bars - there's absolutely nowhere to get a drink for nearly a mile in any direction, so there's definitely an opportunity to establish a neighbourhood watering-hole there. (A 'Happy Hour' would probably be a good idea, as well - to draw in the office drones in the early evening, while they wait for the traffic gridlock on Jianguomenwai and the Third Ringroad to clear.)
We wish Ji-sun well in this venture. I'll definitely look in again whenever I'm in the CBD.
[The name, apparently, is a type of tree - 娑羅. Wikipedia informs me that it is also the name of an Akkadian war goddess - which would make for a way cooler bar name, I think! It's also the Chinese word for 'salad' - 沙拉 - which, while it might perhaps be seen as winningly 'green-friendly' these days, doesn't strike me as a very cool name for a bar at all. I think Ji-sun likes the simplicity of it, the fact that it's pronounceable - and hence, hopefully, memorable - in almost every language, without necessarily having to mean anything.
There has been much discussion over possible names for our friend's bar in 12SqM over the past few months. When JK learned the location was to be below ground, he suggested Six Feet Under (which would work well for a cellar bar, I think; but Ji-sun's place really doesn't feel below ground). When I heard he'd finally settled on the somewhat obscure Shala, I couldn't resist suggesting the - more upbeat! - alternative Shama Lama Ding Dong. This is probably why nobody pays me as a bar-naming consultant...]
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