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[My Local]: Perry's

Dirt-cheap student dive hidden away above the most horrendous bar in the world. It's Perry's, where booze is served by the bucket.
Last updated: 2015-11-09
On our unyielding quest for money, fame, status, wealth, precious gems, expensive automobiles, and X-Box’eses, SmartShanghai tends to concentrate on covering the big events, the big new restaurants, the big dance clubs. Yeah, you’re welcome. In "My Local”, we’re straying away from that focus to highlight great neighborhood bars that aren’t necessarily new, don’t splash out on hyped-up events — or really any events at all — and simply exist in the real world of Shanghai, just as nice places to go and have a drink with some friends.



Area:

The university area of Donghua and Jiaotong. It’s on Kaixuan Lu, in between the metro stations Yan'an Xi Lu and Hongqiao Lu, just about where the Anxi Secondhand Clothing Market is. It’s about 10 minutes walk south of Yuyintang. Maybe a bit further. This is not exactly a bar neighborhood, though it does enjoy the company of some highly dubious Chinese places. A few doors down is a terrifying place on the site of what was once OZNZ. Perry’s is on the third floor of a pretty run-down building. If you can’t find the building, just look for the young Kazakhs arriving on their scooters, and they’ll lead you the right way. On no account stop at the second floor, which is a similarly dirt-cheap bar but one that plays the most painfully distressing music ever created at ear-bleed volumes to absolutely no customers. Don’t even go in there ironically. Just keep walking upstairs and don’t look back.



What is it:

A student bar. Not the hipster, artsy kind of student bar but a very down-to-earth one. Its raison d’etre is to get you pissed for cheap, in the comfortable presence of others with similar aims. It’s very unpretentious. It has one big room like a hall with about 20 long wooden tables and benches, some divided by fences made of fake tree trunks, which give the whole place the feeling of a summer camp. The crowd here is all students and very young, though not as young as the teenage waiters. In general, there are definitely more foreigners but there are a few Chinese in between, all gathering around the big tables, smoking, drinking, laughing. It’s loud and people here obviously enjoy themselves. It’s one of the few bars that is busy almost every night of the week, but on weekends the place gets really rammed, and while sharing the benches, dancing on tables or queuing for the tiny bathrooms, everyone here becomes friends. The walls, tables and all other flat surfaces are covered in generations of student graffiti, from scrawled names and declarations of love to keen-eyed observations about the world in general. You know, things like “I love weed” and “Chinese girls are hot”.




Why it’s good:

It’s the unpretentiousness that makes the place so comfortable. No one here cares about clothes or dressing up, where you’re from or what you do. It’s just about having a good time, going out with friends and getting drunk. And, of course, it’s cheap. Very cheap. Except for Helen’s, which looks identical in almost every way, there probably aren’t many cheaper places to drink in Shanghai. A big bottle of Tsingtao is 10rmb. Gin and tonic is 15rmb and a bucket of rum and coke will just cost you 25rmb. The bucket is like the sort of thing a kid might take down to the beach to make sandcastles. Not like an ayi’s bucket, but that’s still a lot of rum and coke for 25rmb. They also have hookahs for about 25rmb. People smoke and play dice, and as the evening progresses many start dancing. Real renao, having a jolly time and all that.



Atmosphere:

Inside it’s pretty dark and, due to the heavy furniture and the hall-like feeling, maybe it’s not exactly cozy but still, it’s comfortable. The only light comes from the wildly mixed African and Hunan-style fabric lamps above the tables, and a few red chains of light throughout the room. The walls are decorated with African art, cartwheels, 1930s Shanghai posters and pictures of Bob Marley. It’s like a 13-year-old’s bedroom. The music is similarly scattershot. We heard The Who and The Pixies next to Lady Gaga and all the club hits. It’s just whatever makes people sing along and start dancing on tables. For those looking to have serious conversations the loud music could be a bit of a bother but that doesn’t seem to trouble anyone here, as they happily scream into each other’s ears.




Prices:

Cheap; the cheapest. The menu covers everything from beer to spirits and mixed drinks as well as all kinds of Western food from breakfast to pizza, pasta and even steaks. Avoid anything but the most basic food, something no sentient creature can fuck up. This is not a place to come if you really, really fancy a steak. Booze, yeah, as we said: cheap. The Suntory draft is 15rmb, a big bottle of Tsingtao just 10rmb. Mixed drinks start from about 15rmb, the most expensive, a syrupy sweet margarita for 25rmb. The buckets of mixed drinks go from 25 to 45rmb and are served with five straws, for the whole table to share. As if these prices weren’t compelling enough, Perry’s also has a food and drink special for every day of the week. Like free coffee Mondays, 18rmb mojito Tuesdays or our all time favorite: Smoke It Out Sunday, with free flow of cigarettes all day. That last deal kind of sums the whole place up. If we had to boil all this yammering down to one bite-sized review, that would be it: “Perry’s: free-flow cigarettes on Sundays.” Nice.



Ordering Recommendations:

As our smarter readers may have guessed, the quality of the drinks here isn’t the best in town. Sometimes the pours are a bit small and who knows the true pedigree of these spirits. The day after our last visit some of the team felt a little under the weather. Specifically the guy who drank the bucket of rum and coke. Bit of a headache the next morning. But beer is always a good and relatively safe choice, as are less sweet gin and tonics. Or say to hell with tomorrow and go for some crazy ass cocktails and dubious spirit brands. Go for it, kiddo. Shoot for the stars. After a few buckets, who'll remember anyway.



Perry’s, 1139 Kaixuan Lu, 
near Anshun Lu 
凯旋路1139号, 
附近安顺路。For a full listing with a map, go here.

TELL EVERYONE