Booze News: RMB 1 Beer at Luga's DZM, Musical Brews at Little Creatures, Café de la Poste Refuses to Die

Feeling thirsty? Wet your whistle with Booze News, our wrap-up of the week's best bar deals, parties, drink concoctions, industry gossip, and more.

Throughout May: Luga's Launches the Best Beer Deal in the History of Mankind?

Let us begin with what may be the best beer deal in the history of mankind: Luga's brand-new Dongzhimen venue's month-long and absurdly cheap happy hour. A thing of beauty (and surely godawful for business), between 4-8pm you snag yourself glasses of RMB 1 lager (Monday), RMB 2 stout (Tuesday), RMB 3 wheat beer (Wednesday), RMB 4 red ale (Thursday), and buy one, get one free on all beer throughout Saturday and Sunday (regular price: RMB 50 per pint). As a bonus, the space is particularly comfortable, with a terrace out front and mixture of benches and booths inside as well as a pool table and TVs to keep you busy. People of Dongzhimen and beyond: don't expect to get much work done this month.
 

May 10, 7-9pm: Meet the Brewer at Little Creatures

In Beijing for a whistle-stop tour, Australian brewer and regional brewer for Asia Jum Ryan will be taking over The Crib ground-floor gastro pub space tonight for the second night of musical entertainment and beer discovery. Between 7-9pm, Ryan will be doling out tasting samples of some beers from the Hong Kong branch of the Australian pub, as well as samples from the brewery's standard range. He'll also serenade the crowd with a mix of original and cover folk-rock tunes, accompanied on his ukelele and harmonica.
 

Boozy brunches for Mother's Day

Mother's Day is this Sunday, and Beijing bars and restaurants have not hesitated to take advantage of it. Out near the Great Wall, Brickyard is offering a Champagne brunch in the countryside for RMB 316 for adults and RMB 158 for children aged 4-12, accompanied by a live jazz band. At the Mosto x Bodhi Mother's Day Brunch, RMB 310 gets you a glass of sparkling, special surf and turf brunch at Mosto, and a voucher for a 60-minute Chinese massage, valid at any of Bodhi’s locations. Check out more Mother's Day deals and brunches right here.
 

New Happy Hour and Kettle Sour at Slow Boat

Drop an anchor at Slow Boat this week, as they have just released their new Sampan Sour. It's a 5.1 percent ABV kettle sour made with the brewery's own lactobacillus culture. Clean and tart with strong notes of lemon, the Slow Boat crew say that this sour recipe is a sign of things to come, as they look to experiment with some radical new flavors at their new Dengshikou taproom (details still TBA!). 

The brewery has also announced a new daily happy hour, which gets you RMB 10 off every draft beer every day of the week. Happy hour is from 4pm to 7pm – one more reason to knock off work early.
 

'No Diet Day' at Great Leap

Great Leap continue to celebrate International No-Diet Day (which fell on Monday, May 6) with a new limited-time menu, featuring chicken fried bacon with tangy mustard sauce (RMB 25), creamy mac and cheese (RMB 40), a buffalo chicken sandwich (RMB 55), and a RMB 85 triple cheeseburger (featuring three Australian Angus beef patties smothered in triple cheddar, fancy sauce, mayo, and pickles, pictured above).

Let's be clear though, don't eat it cos it's "No-Diet Day," eat it cos you want to!
 

Wine tastings galore

Craving something a bit... fancier? If you're sick of reaching for your standard bottom-shelf plonk at Jenny Lou's and want to extend your wine knowledge a bit, this weekend offers no less than three separate wine tasting events. There are some seriously good drops going around here, so we recommend booking your spot fast. 

May 11, 2-4pm: Wine tasting with Bruce

First up: join Bruce Li, the sommelier of the China World Summit Wing Hotel, for a wine tasting class this Saturday. He will take you on a journey through the wine regions of Champagne before pouring out some Châteauneuf-du-Pape from France, an Albariño from Spain, and an autentico Sicilian wine for a select group of only 15.

May 11, 6-10pm: Masters of Food and Wine at the Park Hyatt Beijing

On Saturday evening, Park Hyatt Beijing executive chef Martin Aw Young, wine director Meiyu Li, tea master Pang Ying and food critic and founder of “A Big Bite” Xiao Kuan team up for a sensory dining experience with fine cuisine, wine and premium tea in The Lounge at the Park Hyatt Beijing.

May 12, 3pm: Loire Valley drops at The Opposite House

Can't afford a trip to France this summer? Enjoy the next best thing this Sunday afternoon at The Opposite House, as sommelier Ashely Gao presents six different wines from France's Loire Valley in an exclusive tasting. For RMB 258 per head, you'll get to enjoy tastings of wines such as the 1749 Rosé D'Anjou and Saumur Brut Blanc. The tasting will commence at 3pm. For bookings, contact Ashley directly at 183 1117 0611 or at ashleygao on WeChat. 
 

And finally... Café de la Poste battles on

News of the beloved Gulou nightspot's death have been greatly exaggerated. While neighboring Yonghegong Dajie businesses fell to the Great Brickening one by one, the late-night party spot resisted longer than most before finally falling mercy to the powers that be on Apr 12, which they marked with a massive closing down party which was subsequently closed down by the police.

Yet... when we dropped by on a recent night, almost a month after their official closure, we were met by the unmistakable sounds of polyglot expat chatter and party music thumping from behind the blue sheet-metal walls that have taken over most of the street. Café de la Poste lives on (for now) but it's almost unrecognizable from the outside. With the principal entrance bricked up, and the street strewn with rubble, patrons have to really want to get in, entering via one wobbly, ditch-spanning plank, and through the former neighboring bakery, to be greeted by the familiar doormat and the blood-red walls within.

Owner Christophe Rovan would not speculate on how long he expects to continue operating under such conditions, so we don't recommend getting too attached to the new bombed-out-chic digs. But for now, the bar is being danced on, the Ricard is being poured, and the floors are as sticky as ever. Long live Café de la Poste!

READ: Celebrate Perfect Mom-ents With These Mother's Day Events

Images: Anna Pellegrin Hartley, courtesy of event organizers