Winners From Way Back: Long Gone Or Still Going Strong?

Voting is now open in the Beijinger's Ninth Annual Reader Bar & Club Awards. We want you to tell us what you think of the city's nightlife scene but before that we're going to take a look back at the winners from the first ever Reader Bar & Club Awards way back in 2004 and ask where are they now?

Here are the results from 2004:

  • Best For Cheap Drinks: Huxley's
  • Best After Hours Club/Best Late-Night Drinks: Suzie Wong
  • Best Decor: Cloud Nine
  • Bar/Club of the Year: Cloud Nine
  • Best to Impress: Centro
  • Best For Dancing/Best Dance Club/Best Place to Dance/Best Nightclub: Vics
  • Best Cocktails/Best Cocktail Selection: Centro
  • Best Business Networking: Centro
  • Best For Live Music/Best Live Rock Venue: CD Jazz Cafe
  • Best DJs: Cloud Nine
  • Best Happy Hour: Centro
  • Best Wait Staff/Best Service: Centro
  • Best Place to Bring a Date: Centro
  • Best Place to Find a Date: Suzie Wong
  • Best New Bar: Red Yard

Where are they now?

Centro (6 awards in 2004): has added a further 18 awards making a total of 24, by far the most awards won by a single bar. Got a well-earned makeover in 2011 and continues to thrive despite the encroachment of taller bars like Atmosphere.

This year Centro is nominated in Best Cocktails (Quality), Best Happy Hour, Best Hotel Bar, Best Service, Best For Business, Best Place To Bring A Date, Most Beautiful People and Best Cocktail Selection (Variety),

Huxley's: Just about the only thing that hasn't changed on Yandai Xiejie in the past 9 years.

Cloud Nine (3 awards in 2004): By the time of our second Bar & Club Awards, Cloud Nine had already gone to bar and club heaven, but many of the figures who played there (including Weng Weng and Dio) remain major players in the city's electronic music scene.

Vics: Has undergone numerous renovations in a bid to keep up with the times, and has succeeded in remaining a mainstay for young clubbers looking for "language partners." Over the years, Vics has picked up six prizes at our awards. Last year, the club celebrated its 10th anniversary, with the owners also opening V Plus towards the end of 2011.

This year Vics is nominated in Best Regular Event and Best Place To Find A Date

Suzie Wong's (2 awards in 2004): Second only to Centro in the list of all-time winners with 15 awards, Suzie Wong's has moved with the times and - though not the draw it used to be - remains one of the most enduring nightlife brands in Beijing, packing out most weekends.

This year Suzie Wong's is nominated in Best Regular Event and Most Beautiful People

CD Jazz Cafe: Although you might not know anyone who has been, this venerable institution remains in business, although with a change of musical direction - they changed the name to CD Blues Cafe in 2010. They've got a blues festival coming up in May (though not all events are at CD Blues Cafe), so look out for news of that on TheBeijinger.com.

Red Yard: This sunny courtyard bar was the first winner of the "Best New Bar" award. Like many of that award's subsequent recipients, it quickly went out of business.

Nine awards in and you can still vote for three of the original seven winners on the ballot and the other two as write-in candidates. Voting couldn't be easier. Just click away in the survey below. You have until May 9 to do so ... but well, you're here already and so's the survey. It seems like the perfect time to vote.

What? You haven't voted yet? If you need an incentive, here are a few:

You could win vouchers from:

  • Senz Wellness & Spa Therapy
  • Ganges Indian Restaurant
  • Green Bites To Go Dumpling Bar
  • Sherpa’s Home Delivery
  • Radegast Lake View Hotel

Plus beer packs from Chimay.

Get voting!

Comments

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I'd forgotten quite when we lost Nanjie, but knew it was some time around then.

It had been on the cards for months, so Huxley had been looking around for new locations. Red Yard was his first project. Well, second - there was a Huxley's II by Gongti Nanmen, next to Pipe, but that only lasted 8 or 9 months.

What fixes the Yandai Huxley's launch for me (apart from the fact it was my first 'local' here!) is that Huxley picked Jackson Bai to run it. Jackson had started off in Huxley's II, and then took over Red Yard shortly after that opened. Red Yard was a great hangout in the summer of '04, but it folded in the autumn. Luckily, the new Huxley's opened almost immediately. It's a pity it's gone downhill so badly since Jackson left the place.

Froog,

Thanks for pointing that out. The closure of the original Huxley's (Sanlitun Nanjie) was actually reported in our October 2004 issue - the same issue that these first Bar & Club Awards results were announced in.

The Yandai Xiejie incarnation of Huxley's opened soon after, but the award referred to above would have been for the South Street Huxley's.

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Back in '03-'04 that would have been the original Huxley's, just off Sanlitun Nanjie. I don't think the Yandai reincarnation launched until after the demise of Red Yard, around the end of '04, or early in '05.

CD Jazz Cafe winning under 'Best Live Rock Venue' was a sign of how narrow the expat community was back then. There were rock clubs around - What, Wuming Gaodi, River Bar, Loupe Chante, the original Get Lucky at Taiyangong - but very few laowai went to them.

Where is Global Club in all of this? I know a lot of Korean's and Chinese go there, but it still is one of the nicer clubs in WDK, much cleaner and better quality than propaganda, Wu, and sensation. Plus they are starting to throw some really big parties and free open bar for women on wednesdays for ladies night.