With the voting concluded and the awards officially announced at last Wednesday’s gala awards party (full results here), we thought we’d take a closer look at the results.

Mesh bested nine other nominees for the title of Bar/Club of the Year, a field that included such heavy-hitters as Q Bar, Tun, Paddy O'Shea's, Block 8, The Rickshaw, The Den and The Tree.

One popular misconception is that the winner of the balloting receives the vast majority of votes; in reality in a 10-candidate field, the difference between the contestants is not as great as one would imagine. The close voting in this year’s awards indicates all of the nominated bars have their loyal following. It also indicates the diversity of Beijing’s bar scene: bars and clubs are not one-size-fits-all outfits that appeal to everyone across the spectrum.

In this year’s survey we asked each voter to give us a little demographic data, and from this we can see that there are strong preferences in bars and clubs based on age, sex, place of origin, student status, sexual orientation, spending habits and social life patterns.

Mesh won the overall ballot by doing well with female balloters, thirtysomethings, heavy partiers (those that go out more than twice a week on average), big spenders (those that spend more than RMB 240 on an average night out), gays and non-students.

One of the strongest contrasts was the preference of students and non-students – students’ top three picks for Bar of the Year were Q Bar, Tun and The Rickshaw; non-students’ top three were Mesh, Paddy O’Shea’s and The Tree.

A similar breakdown was seen across the generations, with those in their 40s (Paddy O’Shea’s, Mesh, The Tree) contrasting heavily with those in their 20s (Q Bar, Tun, The Rickshaw).

Men and women both had Mesh and Q Bar in their top three; though men showed a preference for Paddy’s that was absent in the women’s top three, and women had a stronger preference for Block 8 than the men did.

There was also evidence of preference based on the reader’s area of origin – the four largest segments in the survey all showed a different favorite. Those from China ranked Block 8 at the top; North Americans preferred The Rickshaw, Europeans Paddy O’Shea’s, and the Australians/New Zealanders chose a write-in candidate – Ned’s – as their #1.

Here’s a full breakdown of the top three choices for Bar/Club of the Year in each demographic category:

Sex:

Male
1 Paddy O’Shea’s
2 Mesh 
3 Q Bar

Female
1 Mesh 
2 Q Bar 
3 Block 8


Age:

40-somethings
1 Paddy O’Shea’s
2 Mesh
3 The Tree

30-somethings  
1 Mesh 
2 The Tree 
3 (tie) Paddy O’Shea’s 
3 (tie) Q Bar

20-somethings
1 Q Bar 
2 Tun 
3 The Rickshaw


Frequency of Going Out:

Light Partiers (1 day our per week or less)  
1 Q Bar 
2 Mesh 
3 Block 8

Average Partiers (2 day our per week)  
1 Paddy O’Shea’s 
2 Q Bar 
3 Block 8

Heavy Partiers (More than 2 times per week)  
1 Mesh 
2 Tun 
3 Paddy O’Shea’s


Spending Habits

Light spenders (RMB 120 or less)
1 Tun 
2 Q Bar 
3 Block 8

Medium spenders (RMB 121 to RMB 240)  
1 Q Bar 
2 Mesh 
3 The Rickshaw

Big Spenders (RMB 241 or more)  
1 Mesh 
2 Paddy O'Shea’s 
3 Block 8


Students vs Non-Students

Students  
1 Q Bar 
2 Tun 
3 The Rickshaw

Non-Students  
1 Mesh 
2 Paddy O’Shea’s 
3 The Tree


Sexual Orientation:

Heterosexual  
1 Q Bar 
2 Block 8 
3 Paddy O'Shea's

Homosexual  
1 Mesh 
2 (write-in) Destination 
3 Block 8


Origin

China  
1 Block 8 
2 Q Bar 
3 The Tree

Europe 
1 Paddy O’Shea’s 
2 Q Bar 
3 Mesh

North America 
1 The Rickshaw 
2 (tie) Mesh 
2 (tie) Tun

Australia/New Zealand
1 (write-in) Ned’s 
2 The Den 
3 The Rickshaw