*** Opened last summer, Cu Ju is a Beixinqiao one-roomer sports, beer, and rum bar run by Badr Benjelloun, an expat who's lived in Beijing since the early Ming Dynasty. Here's the outside: Here's the inside: You might (probably) know Badr as the webmaster of Beijing music blog Beijingdaze.com, on which he offers a self-consciously "biased view" on music goings-on in Beijing and China. This bar Cu Ju, though, is separate from his music punditry, and sports are the order of the day here, along with rum, beer, and wine geekery. Yeah, no music. Just sports on two screens. But enough already with the Beijing music thing anyways, eh! So tiresome. One time I was in Cu Ju and this guy brought in an acoustic guitar and started playing it, and Badr got all sour like, "Jesus, here we go". Side note: Dudes who carry around acoustic guitars and play them in public when no one asks you to, you are the Jehovah's Witnesses of the music world. Stop that shit already! Anyways, along with the rums -- the main thing is the rums, to be sure -- is a small menu of bar food snacks and sides, reflecting a background in Moroccan cuisines. The star of the show, however, is Badr's sausage, which is luscious and savory. It's comestible, digestible, esculent, and fit. It's severed on a French baguette, with a small salad side and a dollop of Dijon mustard. It's called a Merguez Sandwich and it looks like this: Double down on those sausages. Work it, girl. EXTREME OUT OF FOCUS CLOSE UP. A Merguez is a piquant little North African sausage, beef or mutton based, served in a lamb intestine casing. I can't even say "lamb intestine casing" without salivating profusely. It's got an African, Middle Eastern spicy little kick to it, quite unlike a Brat or a Cumerland. Cu Ju's rendition of the Merguez Sandwich is two such sausages on a bun, topped with sautéed onions for 40rmb. Now here's the thing. The Merguez Sandwhich is 40rmb usually, available whenever they're open, and that's all well and good but… BUT… if you get it on a Monday it's half-priced. Every Monday all the food at Cu Ju half-price, and that's scientifically proven to be a really ideal situation. It's just math. So here's what you do: Go down on Monday, get TWO sandwiches for 40rmb AND hit their happy hour deal which is two-for-one Tiger pints until 9pm. Can't go wrong with this, I'm telling you. Two sandwiches and two pints for cheap, cheap. It's a real treat. I also like the beets dish they have. Beets! And some blue cheese! (25rmb usually -- half-price on Mondays!) Monday nights at Cu Ju they show two American football games on the TV. Do you like American football? Me, not so much. I usually keep my head down and try to catch up on some X-Men. Magneto! Your pessimistic view of human nature will always been outshone by Charles Xavier's unwavering faith in the principles of humanism and unshakable hope for a better tomorrow! Cu Ju is at 28 Xiguang Hotong. Every day they host the "Hurong Happy Hour, which is 6pm to 9 pm with buy-one-get-one-free on Tiger draft, house mixes, and soft drinks. Nice community vibe and sports on the telly. Good one.