[Radar]: Arcade

Pictures by Joshua Tintner / SmartShanghai

 

Area: Arcade assumes the space of the old Tara 57, right across the street from JZ Club and right next to the popular Salute bar. At 57 Fuxing Lu, on the first floor is Organic Kitchen, the second floor is Arcade, and the third is some KTV place. Sketchiness of said KTV place? Indeterminate. But we are intrigued.

So the intersection is the famed Fuxing Lu, Yongfu Lu corner -- nexus of the universe. Around the way is The Shelter, The Apartment, Shiva, and all that, and down the road is Mistral and Boxing Cat, among others.

What it is: It's not an Arcade. Small, relaxed, almost upscale, indie music-orientated drinks lounge is what it actually is. "Arcade" represents more the thematic device of the place, and they’ve integrated various design elements culled from the world of consol and arcade gaming to construct an identity to the space and give it its personality. They do, in fact, have one purpose-built arcade machine – more on that below – but it's really more of a hip little drinks lounge with the music to match.

On the owner / investor team is local DJ / producer R3, also one of the S.T.D. promoters, and although music and some of the crowd comes from his side of things, it swings upwards to appeal to a more mature, "proper drinks"-seeking kind of clientele. The operations manager did time at CVRVE and Chinatown, among others, and the bar manger used to be at el Coctel, Constellation, and Southern Cross -- all places known for their careful and elaborate drinks menus rather than blow-out events.

And so shying away from an events-orientated, hyped party sort of ethos, you're left with a drinks menu. It's split into three portions separated by glass: Highball, Tumbler, and Martini. Their big seller so far is a "Shiso-jito” – Vodka, Lemon, Ginger Syrup, Ginger Beer, Shiso Leaves – and there's a fair amount of selection in each category with more on the way. They also boast a good selection of single malts, as well as legitimate Absinth from the Czech Republic, replete with a gross worm. Beer on tap is Rogue Dead Guy Ale. They're also working on a shots menu which will be video game-themed. Princess Peach Schnapps? Broken Down Mario Kart? The Legend of Zambucca? Better be.

On to more important matters: the arcade machine. There's one and it's stocked with 21 games to choose from. Games are all contemporary indie video games developed by random programmers. Quite similar to the 2D Play games you play at work to kill time, these games span genres from little, simple 8-bit run-and-jumpers to flash-animation type adventure to space ship shooters. So it's not Asteroids, TRON, Street Fighter, or Space Invaders or anything like that. Random, simple games that no one has ever played. Pretty fun ones on there though.

What else... music. Bit more down-tempo new indie rock / electronic during the week, with more louder, faster stuff during the weekend. It's a drinks lounge so it's never going to be too crazy. The National, Future Islands, The Knife, Junior Boys, Radiohead, various remixes therein...

Atmosphere: Design is by Greenhouse Project, a Spanish design team who also did The Nut. Despite the small area of the place -- maxes out at 70 people, and that would be packed, packed, packed -- there's lots of nerdly video game bric-a-brac designed to amuse: wall of joysticks on the way in, space invaders guys in the toilets, video game-themed wallpaper, "Continue?" sign on the exit. Despite all that, it stops all the video game shit shy of being an all-out theme bar, and it's really more of a small, relaxed lounge atmosphere. It's got the dim lighting, exposed brick, serious leather couches, and all that. Classy geek? Geeky class?

Damage: Cocktails are 65rmb to 95rmb. Gin and tonics, vodka sodas, rum and cokes, and all that are 50rmb. Bottles – Asahi, Lucky – are 40rmb. Red Seal Ale, Blue Star Wheat, 50rmb. Draft at 70rmb. Shots deal: 3 for 100rmb.

Who’s going: Young people with the money and predilections to older tastes? Well... you can't party, party, party all the time, but you CAN drink all the time, so Arcade is good for that. It's geared towards a younger, mixed expat-Chinese crowd that still cares enough to download "relevant MP3s" regularly, but are also too old and shagged out a lot of the time to bother with clubs. Generally speaking then... "creatives” of music and design backgrounds, fashion kids, scene kids, intermingling with bar and drinks nerds, and entrepreneur half-pat lifers. All of them thinking about making some damn money in this town finally. By Christ, when are we gonna make some damn money?

First Impressions: Nice, little, comfy lounge. Tasty drinks. Some vids. Some nice music. What's not to like?