Hello, followers of Shanghai tumultuous and temperamental food and beverage scene.  For our last F&Bs post of 2021, let us remark that we’re heading off into a very uncertain 2022.

So uncertain - even the yearly MVP New Year Eve party was cancelled.

Is there nothing sacred?

Let’s start with the closing venues…

Last Call: Closures Around Town

Atto Primo

Atto Primo — fine Italian dining on the Bund — has announced via Weixin that they’re calling it a service:

Something of a doom’s day clock there.  You’ve got just a few hours to catch their expansive and also expensive menu of down-to-earth, fancy, singular, upscale, casual Italian fare one less time.

Can I offer a (probably) pithy observation?

Mayhaps this “Bund” place could use some of that “tourist and business traveler” action again?  I’m thinking circa 2016?

Cafe des Stagiaires

Whoa. Le Cafe des Stagiaires has also announced their curtain call — a closing party on January 2. I won’t miss these clumsy Anglo fingers trying to type their venue name correctly.  They’re closing out their Found 158 venue after opening up with the revamped F&B hub back when it all started.  

Found 158 — were we ever so young?

LOFAS, which in case you didn’t know, stands for “Life of Fun and Sustainability”, is hosting their final concert on January 3.  It’s not easy running a live music venue in this city. In the best of times.  Add to that: border restrictions on touring bands. Add to that: cancelled shows with quarantined Chinese touring bands. Add to that: a tricky location in a far-away mall. Add to that…

…well, let’s just say it’s not easy running a live music venue in this city. 

That one is particularly shitty, though, because at the end of the day, LOFAS was a medium-size stage, of the only two or three options in Shanghai, for local bands to play. And now they’re closing.

And so it goes…

Hey, you want to get into the bar game? It’s really lucrative.

Dusk till Dawn

The management behind delightful, vampire-themed cocktail-lounge-cum-night club Dusk till Dawn are looking to move on.  They’ve asked us to pay their contact details forward in the search for enterprising (cursed) souls:

“Dusk to Dawn in Jing’an is looking for a patron in the nightlife space to take-over the space. Here’s the info:

Bandit

BANDIT on Xinzha Lu is also closed, but for rennovations.  But if you run a bar…. maybe New Year’s Eve is not the best time to do renovations?

Hmm.

Let’s talk about openings…

Welcome to the Biz: Local Brewers on the Rise

Shanghai Love

Shanghai Love, local, start-up craft brewery, has opened their first brick and mortar location on Maoming Lu. Plenty of foot traffic on that little stretch of F&B.  Raise a pint to them. Hopefully, they have some of that Taco Bell / Joe’s Pizza kinda business over there and not some of that White Castle / Hard Rock Cafe kinda business.

From the makers of Big Bamboo and Pistolera, we’re looking forward to the immanent opening of Beast of the East. They’re opening right in the belly of the beast on Xinle Lu. Talking to my annoying friends who know about craft beer, theirs used to be “just okay” but now “it’s really good”. 

See? We’ve done the research. 

They’re opening in mid January.

There’s a new private little live music / event space called Juno on Dongping Lu but we’re not allowed to tell you about it so we’ll point you in the direction of this new little Mediterranean eatery called Juke on the same street instead. Coming soon, that one is, from Chef Michael J.

Borsh & Kompot, a new, kinda chic-looking Russian restaurant, is now open. It’s right around the corner from my house. I’ve looked at the front of it and it looks pretty nice, and I WILL try to eat there. Click that link for the venue details if you want to beat me there.

Quick bites: Suzhou’s “best” sushi restaurant Sushi Ryu Getsu is now open in the Kerry Center; Pizzeria S a “casual, upscale” pizza restaurant is now open on North Bund; Black Rock is a new whiskey bar at Fumin and Yan’an Lu.

Pizzeria S

..,.And Chili's has a new branch in Daning.

See y’all in 2022.

Maybe.