Craft Masters: Great Leap's New Sanlitun Bar

Great Leap's new Sanlitun brewpub has been packed out for a series of "soft opening" tasting sessions this weekend. The bar should be fully open within the next two weeks, but for now we can give you a look at what to expect. Pretty clear though that this is one of the most ambitious and exciting things to happen in Beijing nightlife for a long time.

Designer Paul Gelinas (who has worked on a number of Beijing projects) has done a great job on the interior, Kin Hong (the man behind the recently closed Taco Bar) has whipped up some excellent burgers in his role as kitchen consultant, and most importantly, they'll be turning out multiple different brews at once when they get the brewing operation fully up and running (when we visited there were still one or two technicalities to be worked out). Take a look at the photos below and be prepared to be impressed (by the bar, not the quality of the photos).

If you want to go along for a look yourself, Great Leap is on Shizipo Jie (the street running west off Chunxiu Lu, about 300m west of the April Gourmet at Xingfu Yicun). It's just a few doors west of Red House. Don't expect them to be open, though you might get lucky.