Usher is in town this weekend - read our interview with the man here - and Beijing's gone just a little bit mad. The guys at Street Hustle, who are promoting this Sunday's gig at Wukesong Arena, have had bar owners creating Usher-themed cocktails. Or rather, themed on his song OMG. Fubar, Apothecary and Twilight are among the bars competing - vote for your favorite at clubzone.cn. But do try them out first.

A month after the Rickshaw's demise (reported here), clouds appear to be gathering around another of Beijing's favorite bars of recent years. Beijing Boyce reports here on Q Bar's one-day closure earlier this week, citing tension among the management. As the sun comes up again over Beijing, plenty of us will be looking forward to occupying Q Bar's terrace for a drink - let's hope we'll get the chance. Boyce also notes that Blue Frog's terrace has reopened already. Hmm. I'm as big a fan of happy hour drinks on the Frog's terrace as anyone, but given the icy winds this morning, I'd say they're just a little too eager to start reaping the rewards.

Nobody likes an early rise on Monday morning. If you’re an American football fan, though, you’ll probably be raring to go before the sun rises this coming Monday. Super Bowl XLIV kicks off at 7.25am Beijing time, with the Indianapolis Colts facing off against the New Orleans Saints. Aside from a short period in the late 1980s, when my interest in the NFL peaked with my completion of a gridiron-related Panini sticker album, I’ve lived life more or less ignorant of what goes on in American football. I thus have zero insight to offer on who might win the Super Bowl, but ESPN does have what looks like a reasonable preview here.

With all the results announced on Saturday at our 2012 Reader Bar & Club Awards party, now it's time to take a closer look at who won, who narrowly missed out and what it all means.

Let's start with one of the big ones. Traditionally, we've given a single "Bar of the Year" award marking one venue out above all others. In 2004, the very first year of the Bar & Club Awards, a nightclub (Cloud Nine) actually won the top award, but since then the Bar of the Year award has been dominated by cocktail bars (Centro, Q Bar, Mesh), all-rounders (Fubar, First Floor, Browns) and a sole rock venue (D-22). This year, we decided to give the clubs more room by creating a "Club of the Year" award to parallel the "Bar of the Year" contest. So what of the "Club of the Year" winners?

If you were one of the approximately 1,200 guests who came along at some point to our 2012 Reader Bar & Club Awards party at Sanlitun Soho on Saturday, we hope you had a good time. The numbers suggest that you must have - collectively, we managed to get through around 700 liters of beer, not to mention countless bottles of spirits and cans of wine spritzer. We're also pretty sure some of your memories of the day might be hazy at best, but isn't that what the photo galleries on this website are for?