Restaurant Openings: Cup One
Cup One is evidence of Beijing’s changing style.There isn’t a floral print or over-sized couch to be seen. I look around me and this is the crowd I’m becoming familiar with in Beijing – groups of middle-class Chinese with a cosmopolitan flair and the occasional edgy hat.
Service is pleasant and relaxed, and the capaciousness rules out cacophony. On the second floor, up the birdcage-like staircase, the café has another dimension, an amphitheatre-like dome, which seems purpose-built for café-based work.
I ordered a latte (RMB 35) – my litmus test of a new café– and this one didn’t fare too badly: good temperature and a taste that beats anything coming out of the city’s big coffee chains.
The menu is short and Western and covers a few basic groups such as milkshakes, alcoholic beverages, brunch items, pasta and rice, and also main courses that include items like a prosciutto blue cheese penne with salad (RMB 65). A little slow in coming, it’s a rich, creamy event with thinly-sliced prosciutto sprinkled over the top, a drizzle of pesto, and a mild blue cheese flavor. Somehow large chunks of pear made their way into the recipe which I could have done without but overall, as with the space itself, I’m happy.
Cup One
Daily 9am-11pm. Unit 02-03, F/2, Bldg D, Kirin Place,11 Fu’anxi Lu, Chaoyang District (5363 0599)
朝阳区阜安西路11号麒麟社(新天地)D楼2层0203室
800m southeast of Wangjing station (Line 15)
A version of this article appears in the January 2014 issue of the Beijinger
Photo: Sui
