is currently soft open up over the river on Xinyuan Jie. In dutiful reverence to this momentous occasion, we hit up one of those tasting dinners they've been doing to give it the once-over. And by "we" I mean myself and SmartBeijing's photographer, Mao. These are his pictures. He's ever so slightly better at this photography thing than I am. Pretty nice, eh? With the design points, look, and feel of the number #12 location, Great Leap Brewery #45 is more of a beer hall kind of vibe, with one main communal eating and drinking area hosting bench-stye seating. There's the bar at the side, a bit of a booth/lounge thing towards the back, and a stand-and-drink area at the front. They've also got a rooftop patio, which will be open when the weather gets better, with seating for about 100 people. It's an alright patio -- sort of off the street, looking into this residential bit. But yeah, I gotta say, it looks great. GLB #45 really feels more open and communal than #12, which is more segmented into booth seating. This one feels more like a party. It's open, everyone's grouped together, and you can walk between the tables really easily. This is, I guess, either a good thing or a bad thing depending if you're a people person or not. Speaking of people people... So, this location also houses the beer production factory stuff like the other one, and GLB's beer is now going to be manufactured at both, with their higher volume beers (the #6 and the Honey Ma) made here and the more idiosyncratic and seasonal ones at the #12 spot. Like the other one, all this machinery is behind a this big glass window and you can peer into it at your leisure, marveling at all the wonderful beer science going on. We got back there to have a look around as well. I've had this beer making process explained to me like five or six times now and I still don't understand it. (Psst! I don't really care! Shhh.) Look! Pretty pictures! So, the beers. They've got like 6 or 7 available for the rest of the week, 10 more for Friday, and then space for 20 when they get going. All their main sellers are present and accounted for. We were sticking to the #6 and the Honey Ma, which were both excellent. Photographer Mao doesn't drink alchohol, but he very much approves of their ginger soda, non-beer thing, whateverthisis. He spent like 20 minutes trying to take the perfect photo of it and thus it would be a shame not to include it here. Cheers to the non-drinkers. Anyway. The food. Here's the menu. The #12 place does burgers. This #45 place does pizza. And never the twain shall meet... or maybe they will, I dunno. But yeah, that's the idea: burgers at #12 and pizza at #45. Pizza provenance is from the esteemed Kin Hong of The Taco Bar, along with another pizza consultant they flew in from Philadelphia. That's right: a foreal pizza consultant. Between the two of them, they've worked out the menu which you see above -- six varieties of pizza split into "Red" and "White" pies. Pizzas come in 16-inch pies (108rmb to 128rmb) or 18-inch slices(25rmb to 35rmb). For sides, you've got a Caesar Salad... ...which tasted exactly like a Caesar Salad, and Buffalo Wings... ...which were pretty decent. Could have been spicier, maybe. But yeah, you'd be going here for the pizza: The Little Nunzio - GLB Cheese Blend, House Made Sausage, Pickled Pepper, Red Chilli Flakes, Basil The Chicken - GLB Cheese Blend, Herb Roasted Tomato, Chicken, Pesto Ricotta The Green Machine - GLB Cheese Blend, Shaved Zucchini, Roasted Red Peppers, Roasted Garlic, Kale, Shallot, Black Pepper Riccota This pizza... ...is really, really good. Damn. It's excellent. The basic crust and cheese blend are done really well, and when you get those two things down, it's not hard to go from there. Style is classic American, with a few overtures to modernish, up-market boutique-style cooking (treated riccotas, kale, and arugula), but the overall feel is basic comfort food done properly. Like the great burgers at the other place, GLB does simplicity really well. Simplicity is their schtick. The food isn't overly complicated, overly ambitious, or dressed up into something that it's not. It's just really, really damn good junk food. Hard to pick a favorite. The "Nunzio" had a great sausage and chilli flake mix going on -- tasted real "Beijing" that one, whereas the chicken had a nice, lighter, pesto-ey taste. The hippie garden, vegetarian one was really great too. Think that one ended up being the favorite at the table. Think if I had to recommend something, I'd say just go for the slices and have a nice mix. Definitely worth the trip down though. Thumbs up. They're open for walk-ins from Friday on. **** On finding it: GLB #45 is on Xinyuan Jie, just up a bit from that CPearl oyster place. Heading north, it'll be on your left on that street.