I've been hunting Valentine's Day chocolate for my sweeter half. Chinese New Year, and a few closings, have obscured the trail. Mon Reve closed their retail shop; Visage gave up altogether. And even Hof, the clear V-Day go-to, will be closed on Valentine's; they lock it up at 3pm on the 13th, another New Year's deserter.

There's an axis of chocolate shopping that parallels Sinan Lu, if you're hunting as well. It starts in Taikang Lu, with crafty truffles. At Fuxing Lu, it bends westward to Pralinor, a shop specializing in hand-crafted Belgian chocolates (20rmb for 50g); their two notables are a young, chocolate-colored boy wearing white chocolate blackface, and a series of scenes from the Kama Sutra, offering a few positional suggestions for the chocolate couple, and two panels that render cocoa into advice for proper etiquette in an MMMF foursome (130rmb).

Heading north, the axis stops with Hof, which has quickly become Shanghai's chocolate center of gravity. Brian Tan -- owner; former 5-star hotel pastry chef -- scooped up the extras from the recent Salon du Chocolat exhibition and so positioned himself as the King of Valentine's. He's got all manner of single-origin chocolates unavailable anywhere else in China -- Bernachon, Lac, Jacques Bellanger -- at prices 30-40% less than they sold for during the Salon.

Tan's also maneuvered an exclusive deal with Amedei, who are a fine, fine chocolate company from Tuscany. His first shipments from Italy showed up today, and the small squares of single-origin chocolates are distinguished by the cocoa's provenance: Madagascar, Venezuela, Ecuador, etc. He's also carrying bite-sized samples of Amedei Porcelana, a single varietal chocolate so special it's got a Wikipedia page. Stocks on the Salon stuff are limited, and selling quickly; there's plenty of the Amedei. It's all something special.

Tan's off for the holiday, so the shop closes at 4pm on Feb 13th, but if you're lazy and willing to pay for a courier, he's willing to arrange it. Get to purchasing.

Pronto opens on the corner of Xiangyang and Julu Lu tonight. It's a "New York-style" Italian restaurant, which, I guess, means red sauce and Italian-American standards. It could even be authentic inauthentic Italian-American food, as all three times I've seen the chef, he's been wearing an old leather jacket. I think that counts for something.

Dishes on their menu, via their PR blurb: "Fried Calamari, Pappardelle Bolognese, Lasagane, Ravioli, Bruschetta, Zuppe De Pesce over Linguine, Chicken Marsala, Veal Milanese and signature dishes such as Pistachio Crusted Rack of Lamb, Snapper Portofino and Jumbo Prawn Scampi."

They already take credit cards, which is nice for a brand-new venue, but there's one catch -- they've gotta be breaded, deep-fried, covered in red sauce, and have a slice of mozz melted over the top. Zing.

Weekend warriors, glittery club M2 is moving locations, vacating their Plaza 66 location and picking it back up at the end of April at their new location on the 4th floor of the Hong Kong Plaza, off Huaihai Lu.

From the M2 team: "The new M2 will be bigger and the design style will be different than it is now. My advice is that we just tell the party people there will be a new, better M2, and they will expect it."

M2 at Plaza 66 closes for good on February 28, with their "Hand Over Party."

SmartTicket is taking orders for the third Maybe Mars record label showcase, featuring performances by the following radness: Carsick Cars, AV Okubo, Guai Li, and newcomers Birdstriking.

Four hot, hot, hot bands from Beijing's Mars label. Music is post punk, indie rock, electro punk spazz and more. Door tickets are 100rmb, presales are 70rmb including delivery. Starts 9:30pm.

That one's on February 27 at MAO Livehouse. Have at it: click here.

A hotel has done something interesting. A Sheraton. In Pudong, no less. Imagine!

It is a weekly Friday evening promotion called Tiffin, wherein their Nepalese chef lays out a spread of Indian and Nepalese curries and breads, they throw Himalayan music on the soundsystem, the beverage menu turns Indian, and the air becomes really thin. It's 258rmb and then they sting you with the 15% surcharge, and there's no alchohol involved, but, hey, caffeine is a drug too and it's unlimited soft drinks.

Here's the listing.

Delhi Zaika's Pakistani BBQ and cold baingan bharta was a favorite of mine. Their location, on an out-of-the way Hongqiao street, killed them. They closed recently. Took some time to think about it. Re-grouped. And opened a new restaurant, Ebeneezer's. On Zhangdong Lu.

Where the hell is that?

I'll tell you. I went today. You take Metro line two to Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, where the subway system goes above ground and connects to these new Maglev-looking street trolleys. And then you take a motorcycle taxi. You turn left at the field of cucumbers, right at the sprawling car dealerships, and then when you feel yourself fall off the map, you look for the low-rise corporate campuses devouring the farmland. That's Zhangdong Lu. To my surprise, it is home to a Charmant.
To Delhi Zaika Ebeneezer's great pleasure, they've discovered that it's also home to a captive audience of foreign IT professionals, many of them Indian, with not many lunch options. There's also a bunch of Hongkie and Singaporeans out there, and, so what once was an authentic Indian restaurant is now more of a corporate canteen, with sandwiches, Canto food, and biryani.

Anyway, it's not the Delhi Zaika of old. And it's not an offshoot of the Hong Kong doner kebab chain, Ebeneezer's. But if you live in Jinqiao, have a car, or were wondering what happened to Delhi Zaika, there you go. They snubbed downtown once and failed. They snubbed it even harder, and found success. Good for them. Location, location, location.

The Lit Fest is classing up Shanghai from March 5-21 this year. Peter Hessler is the marquee name, but you cultured people already knew that. He's nattering away in the final slot, at 5pm on the 21st. Tickets are sort of, maybe, perhaps on sale via Mypiao. Here's the Mypiao website; buying tickets today involved a call, an email, a confusing explanation, and maybe delivery on Wednesday.

The full author lineup is in this PDF right here.

California Pizza Kitchen, a mass-market pizza chain popular in the US, closed their only mainland China store on Sunday evening. The company was known for an exceedingly tolerant attitude towards toppings; in recent months, CPK scored a breakthrough by actually offering "cheese pizza" as a pizza topping. But, it appears, the insatiable drive to put ever crazier shit on a pizza has stressed the company's Fusion Research Department.

In a statement fabricated by SmartShanghai, a corporate executive apologized for the company's exuberant fusion topping policy. "It started with shrimp and mangoes," said the exec, speaking anonymously because he was not authorized to comment to the news media. "You've got to understand. It was the 1980's, California, everyone was drunk on the possibilities."


But, he went on to say, "It got out of control. At the end, we were experimenting with ice creams, sub-Saharan yam pastes, and harissa. On one pizza. It was too much. The pizza-as-a-pizza-topping was the final straw. That's when we knew we'd gone too far. We couldn't know until we'd crossed it, of course, but there was some kind of moral line. It appears we crossed it. Sorry about that."

The Shanghai Centre location was open for five years. The master franchisee will come to Shanghai this year to explore the possibilities of re-opening CPK in other locations.

You demand the freshest vegetables, the freshest beer, and the freshest wine.

And you only eat at the freshest restaurants. Here are three so fresh they still have dew on their fapiao. You might like to try them this weekend:

1. Chalet Suisse - It is Swiss. More.

2. Dera - It is Indian. More.

3. Mi Tierra - It is Mexican. More.

Saints be praised, Game * Bling, a new club from the Golden Globe winning team at Bar Rouge is now soft open. Game * Bling is a hip hop club/games room -- no real, for-money betting -- but lots of light diversionary pleasures for people who like dice, playing card,s ball, and bow and arrow-based drinking games. SmartShanghai interviewed the Team Bar Rouge and they talked a bit about it. Click here and scroll down to the bottom or so.

So it looks like they're in soft opening now, click here for the venue listing and here for their website, and I gather they're going to blast a hard opening at the end of March.

In other clubbing news, house club Lotus is likely to soft open at the end of next week.