The Pourcel brothers have returned to Shanghai in two steps, after an inglorious sinking of Sens & Bund, their original Shanghai project.

They are twin brothers whose flagship French restaurant has been on both the good and bad side of Michelin. Like a lot of these starry chefs, they've got a mean biz streak, and their eyes on global empires. When Sens & Bund went screwy, they abandoned Shanghai.

The Expo brought them back, and by all accounts, 6SENS, on top of the French Pavilion, is minting money. That was step one. Step two is leaving that false economy for the real world: Maison Pourcel.

The location couldn't be better known among locals. The Red House was the French restaurant in China's mind for decades. Now it's called Maison Pourcel, and after renovating the leftovers from the last people to attempt a revival, it re-opened last week.

The place is split into two floors. The eighth-floor is where Pourcels go for broke. The sixth-floor is a more casual lounge, they say. (I haven't been.) I remember its terrace with views across low-rise Puxi. That floor may or may not re-open this weekend, but the fine dining restaurant is open for business now, and I've got a copy of the menu. It's fancy, modern French.

I've broken it into pages, if you'd like to have a look. Click the links for cold starters, hot starters, fish, meat, desserts and more desserts. Maison Pourcel's details are here.

Sadly, terrific underwear shop Manifesto erstwhile located in the Shanghai Studio grotto area has closed shop. Their wares are still available online, however, should you be inclined to outfit yourself in fabulous high-end men's undies. Click here to buy, buy, buy.

Shanghai Studio is turning the shop into a lounge space and are throwing an opening party for it this Friday. Details here.

It's free wine from 9pm to 10:30pm and they've got a drag show on. Also -- and I'm going to go out on a limb here -- I think they're planning on hosting a couple hundred guys with their shirts off going totally insane when Lady Gaga comes on.

That's my prediction. Should be awesome.

Tickets to a few events are available, should you find yourself inclined towards the high arts. To wit:

Aug. 4 and 6: La Boheme @ Shanghai Grand Theater

Tickets are going fast for this one. There's only two shows, on August 4 and 6, so if you don't want to miss out, order those up.

Oct. 2-7: St. Petersburg Ice Ballet @ Shanghai City Theater

The St. Petersburg will be peforming three selections from their repertoire: Swan Lake, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. Refer to the ticketing page for their schedule.

SmartShanghai receives occasional freebies. Some are better than others. This week we've gotten dried Xinjiang camel meat (thanks Michael!), and chocolate cake. Let's focus on the cake, which was a bribe to talk about Awfully Chocolate. We can do that.

The single-minded cake shop -- no slices! no seats! nothing but cake! -- has softened in their middle age, and introduced a range of other products they'd like you to know about: cake by the slice; dark chocolate truffles; cupcakes; the heavier "super stacked" chocolate fudge cake; some other stuff.

Awfully PR: "The new concept embraces a fresh experience with a range of new products with character and more unusual elements, but still keep to the Awfully Chocolate tradition of making everything by hand and from scratch, and of course from natural ingredients and premium chocolate."

If you've got free swag that can do double duty as news and lunch (no sour Xinjiang cheese marbles), send SmSh an email here. We've got a lot of gray area.

Chu Xiang was a gem of a Hubei restaurant. It sat anonymously at the top of Jiaozhou Lu, serving a lot of great, simple dishes with finesse. Now it's gone.

Something about the lease. It's always something about the lease.

They say they've shifted operations to Lotus Restaurant, but that might not be entirely accurate. The owner is the same; the menu and chef are not. If you'd like to venture a comparison, Lotus's listing is right here.

There's a lot of new places to try. Maybe The Purple Onion is on your list.

Here's a way to peek at the decor, drink some booze for half price, and see if you and the kitchen connect over some Med snacks.

They've got a daily aperitivo going from 5-7pm, with a two-fer-one deal on the Purple's classic cocktails, selected beers and wines, Mediterranean bites, and long, suggestive hugs with David Laris. Trust me, one hug with that guy is not enough.

Oh, you need details? Here.