A group of us (guys and girls) went to the Local last month on a Saturday night at 11pm. Surprisingly, the bar was pretty much empty but we later found out why.
Upon entering, we asked to see the drinks menu using the international sign for a drinks menu. The American barman/owner retorted by saying "what does this mean? what does this mean?". Taken aback, we verbally asked for the drinks menu. Maybe the owner was having a bad hair day (NB - he's bald).
We ordered our drinks (pretty good) and played some pool. It looked like things were improving until one of the guys from our group mistakenly took a cigarette from a pack of one of the bar owner's friends (the other client apart from ourselves). Our full pack was right beside it. The friend asked us what we were doing? We apologized and said we accidentally mistook the friend's pack with ours and we thought that was it. But no. The bar owner then confronted us: "what are you doing? it's not cool to steal. Why did you do it?". We didn't know what to say - one of the girls in our group started to explain the situation again with the hope of defusing the situation. Bar Owner's reply: "you need girls to defend you now? How pathetic are you?" Stupefied by his line of thought, we didn't know what to say. Our silence I guess annoyed him as he then decided to kick us out. Yelling "get out, get out". So we did. Our premature exit resulted in us not having to pay for our two rounds of drinks (cheers), but I wouldn't recommend this free-drink tactic to future customers. The experience was very unpleasant and very unlike the usually friendly bars in Beijing.
Moral of the story, being a sexist bully to your customers does not equate to a successful business model. Beijing has many, many bars.
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Hi Eaglepost-
As the owner of The Local I must say that I'm quite confused by this review. This situation did not happen to me. If it did happen to me, it would be way out of character for me to be a sexist bully. As the guy who does the accounting, I can also tell you that we had no empty Saturday nights last month.
I'm really not sure what to do with this. Is there any chance I can get you to come talk to me about this in person? Normally, if we make a mistake, I attempt to make things right, and do my best to bring that person back as a customer. I'll make this up to you if I can - but I'm not sure how to even start. I'll send you a private message with my contact info.
I sincerely hope we can get this worked out.
-Kenn (NB - I am bald)