Malaysian transplant Chong Gee Cho opened up the template hard-to-find hutong lounge bar, tucked away in the sleepy residential Zhangwang Hutong back in 2004. It's called Bed bar. Bed's dim and dead-tech, industrial-minimalist aesthetic, mixed with a policy of "proper drinks" and trendy dance music, has been an oft-duplicated formula in Beijing for the past decade, and although many have come and gone in the interim, Bed bar has lasted throughout... Until August 16 that is, when Bed bar will say goodnight for the last time. Their lease is up. The property owners and knocking it down and building something newer and more expensive in its place. Cosmic ballet. In the run to their closing party, they've got a bunch of specials on for friends and well-wishers to hang out one (or a few) last times to raise a glass. Click here for details. SmartBeijing talked to Cho about unruly neighbors, unruly guests, and ruling hutong drinking for nigh ten years. Advanced reading: Jerry Chan at The Beijinger has a pretty good obit for Bed right here. ***

Yes.

Definitely. Yes, it's all changed. It used to be that no one would come to this area [Gulou] unless you lived here. It was all residential. A bit of commercial shops but basically all residential. When we started [with Cafe Sambal - CGC, owns this Malaysian resto as well] in late 2002, outside there was nothing -- maybe one or two restaurants. But there was also a whole row of barbershops.

Barbershops that were not barbershops, you know what I mean. So, normally, when friends from out-of-country came here, we would say after lunch or after dinner, "hey, why don't you go get a haircut." [Laughs]. Yeah, there were about 10 of them, I think. I don't know why this area in particular -- Gulou Xi Dajie. I guess it was kind of hidden and nobody was supposed to come here unless you lived here. But it was very much like Amsterdam -- a small, dressed-up red light district. Quite astonishing. But they all left. We came here about 2002 and I think they left about a year later. And Bed Bar was 2004.

I used to own bars and restaurants back in Malaysia. We used to do a similar thing but maybe slightly bigger. At the peak, we had maybe 20 restaurants.

In 2001, I was visiting a friend in Qingdao, and then came to Beijing to stay for a week for a half holiday. I got connected with a local guy here who showed me around. Things were quite slow in Malaysia at the time, so the opportunity came to do something here. But it was kind of a half holiday that developed from that… There's a saying, if you don't leave after three years, you'll be here for six of seven years. And if you hit six or seven years, you're here forever.

I had this open [Cafe Sambal] and had a little bit of experience then. I was just looking for a space to do something and came across that one. Didn't know what to do but negotiated the lease anyways to secure it before even having the idea. Then I went to Europe and came back, and the only thing I knew I wanted to do was a bar. At that time, it was in still quite a hidden area. Big space. Still not sure what to do, but wanted to grab it first. But, yeah, I was in Europe; I was in Ibiza. So I had a good feeling for a tapas bar. At that time there were no tapas bars in Beijing. But we wanted music and DJs -- every week DJs from Thursday to weekends. Music was like Ibiza music from back then. At that time in Beijing there was a few clubs, quite local ones doing well, and we came into that. Henry Lee -- he had a few things going. Places like Rui Fu, 88, Neo Lounge, and later Cloud 9. So that's how we started…

The concept was always to be a bar plus music, so it was just searching for the name and concept. A good friend of mine, we met in Beijing, but we were in Miami for a business trip. And he told me about this nice bar, which was B.E.D. in Miami … and it was a cool name for a bar. I didn't actually go, but it was a good name, good concept. To be fair, theirs was more of a club and more high-end. But it was an idea and concept that I could take and change for Beijing and re-design, and design myself. In the early days, Bed was a bit more refined. The front part was all industrial -- all cement and clean. Then we had the center, which was more Shanghai-style, Shanghainese style art deco -- bit of that, and then further in it was Qing style. It was all little bit zen and all that. We won a bunch of awards for design and it was different than other places. But it was also the location -- being a bit further away from everything and being different. People could bring their visitors. There was nothing after Sanlitun and people would all take taxis to the place so there was anticipation and travel. Outside on the street there was nothing -- really residential -- and then you start walking in… But we had a good slogan, you know. "Let's Go To Bed". [Laughs.]

We opened for a Christmas eve -- just sent out a few text messages for friends. And then we opened again on December 31 and it was packed.

Yes. Yes. A LOT of problems.

Well, we tried to. It doesn't really work. One day this old man came, it was the middle of the night, he's saying it's too loud. So we sat down with him to negotiate, asking him how much he wants. We agreed upon and amount and everything was fine. And he said" You'll never see me again". He came back the next day. [Laughs.] The very next day. The one right across from us, an old lady, we fixed her window, installed an air con, fixed her cable, sound proof her place… she was happy for a while. And then one day she came back: "I will need a new air con unit." So we gave her money, gave her more money, but she still kept calling the cops.

Yeah, it was bad. To be fair. It was loud. Weekdays were not that bad, but it was very busy on the weekends. More busy than it is now. Even though now it is still busy. And then on and off we would have these after parties.

We didn't. It just continued the whole time. There's no solution. To be fair, it's noisy. To put yourself in their position, it's noisy. And you can never tell DJs to turn it down. At one time we hired extra staff to take people outside. Because a lot of it was the people leaving the bar, you know. Being loud outside. The police advised us to hire extra staff to escort the people outside and try to tell them to make not so much noise. But again you can't really stop it.

I would say when we first opened, the police came, they kept asking "WHAT do you do here, WHAT do you do here." Ten times I would say, "It's a bar." They would say, "What else?" "Drinking." "What else?" "Having conversations." Nothing else… it's a bar, it's a bar. We also had people in who thought it was a bed and breakfast. So they came all the way here, dragging their luggage. But we were quite easy in the early days. Two, three, four people would pass out and we'd let them stay until the morning. Kick them out in the morning when we cleaned.

Yeah, in ten years… in those first few months we had problems with the police. They came in uniforms, kicked everyone out and shut it down. It was rough. But over the years we established a rapport with them, and it got better… they just came in to tell us to turn down the music. But, yeah, the first few months it didn't really work out but it got better. With the neighbors, some I paid, some I installed air cons for them…

Well, now it's all very commercial. Things mushroomed up very quickly. At Gongti, it all came very quickly. First one being Babyface but now it's very commercial and the street is gone. There's still new ones. Colors is the newest one. I went one or two months ago. It's very big. Very Chinese. They had a guy singing. You also had Elements. It was quite cool when it first opened. I was thinking, 'well here is the club scene.' People dress up and it's the most gorgeous people in town. And then I went back again, and I can't even dance. I don't know now. You can't dance and you're squeezed in there like sardines. Another newer one is Spark, that one from Taiwan. I've never been myself but I think they're doing well…

Well, all the nights we stayed until dawn, I guess. There was one time we had a French couple, they had a wedding -- not the actual wedding but a reception for them and we dressed up the place. I remember I hardly knew the couple but we stayed up with them until morning and went out on to the streets at daylight -- a couple of these nights. One of the last good parties we had was Clive Chin. The Jamaican guy. Super, super fun night. It was organized by Split Works. They needed a last minute venue -- this Jamaican Chinese guy coming back to China for the first time in his life. We had a great time. Probably packed like 500 or 600 people. By the time we hit 500 it was just, "let people in, let people in."

Well, the worst ones… well, I cant complain about the neighbors because they are the victims, really. But one time I had to call the police myself. One time there was this gang of locals, from this one guy -- we kind of hated each other -- but there was a gang of guys. It was the summertime right so it's half-naked guys, they blocked my entrance. [Laughs.] And they decided to block the entrance to not let people in or out. Like at 8 or 9 at night. So we called the police. The first batch came and they did nothing. They couldn't do anything. At the end, I had to deal with a special police group -- the one that deals with foreigners -- they came and tried to talk to the guys. They were quite helpful. But, yeah, for the people who couldn't get in, I took them to Sambal for free food and drink for the night. And for the people in the bar, we tried to get them out, but it took a while… But that was definitely one of the worse. What else… we've had people throw bricks into the courtyard. Neighbors getting fed up with noise…

Yeah, we were lucky that nothing happened. It was more on the side of it. But things like that… worst memories.

The reason for closing is that the property belongs to a state-owned company and so now they decided to tear it down and rebuild something new.

Not a shopping mall… to be fair, I don't actually quite know. I think they consider the older building not good enough, so they're rebuilding for a couple reasons. One reason is to make the rents much higher. Initially, I tried to come with a proposal to redo the project and keep the bar but It didn't work. I think the only thing that would work after the rebuild would be a private club.

Well, we looking at Tianjin… Shanghai, I don't know. I may have a small space there. Make it into a lounge maybe.

Yeah, I'd say we started with maybe 95% expatriates. But even in that crowd it changes over time. At one time it was more French, staying until the early morning and you cant them out. One time it was a lot of Germans and then Spanish and then South Americans, then it was mixed up. Above all we used to get a lot of architects and designers. It was that crowd. We get a lot of that. Also people in movies. This movie "Painted Veil" -- that crew used to come here a lot.

Well initially the lease was going to be up on August 15, so I thought, well, let's do it on August 16. But now its looking like we might have the space until the end of the month. So we'll have the party on August 16, but maybe all month people can come down and have a drink or whatever.

I don't know. who knows…

Formula for success… timing and the way it's being done. Being different. The style of it. At that time everyone was putting marble and lights everywhere -- everything is very tacky -- so it stood out a bit. It was stripped down and clean. Cool design for the time. I don't think I can create the same Bed bar again. The timing, the costs, and the care-free feel of the place is not something you can recreate. Very natural and not trying to make lots and lots of money. And people could get naughty…

Yes it's happened. One time it was this one couple. Both foreigners, their hands are in their jeans, right in front of everyone. [Laughs.]

Yes.

I would say two months ago when I heard the news it was bad. I felt really bad. I tried to save it, and put more money in. But life goes on… *** Bed bar is hosting special and special events all August long leading up to their closing party on August 16. Click here for details on those. Don't forget to head down one or several times to raise a glass.