Buzzed around a bunch of Gulou watering holes last night, getting THE SCOOP on what was new and fresh for the drinking season, spring/summer 2014. A new food menu, some renovations, and a complete overhaul is what we found -- what's old is new again. ***

Más

Complimenting their new paint job after re-openning from the holidays, hutong good-drinks bar Más has launched a new spring food menu, concentrating mainly on the idiom of Latin bar food, a pretty unique idea for the area. They're offing a range of finely-wrought snacks, sides and lighter meals to compliment their extensive range of winsome tropical cocktails. You should try some of these out next time you're in for a drink. Some really great stuff. Muy delicioso. Here's a quick look at some of the highlights... Pan-Fried Yunnan Goat Cheese with Seasonal Fruit (45rmb). Yep. Can't mess with this goat cheese stuff. Pretty sure it's the only thing holding our society together. Here's a Three Cheese Quesadilla with Green Chili Aji (45rmb) -- just a simple cheesy Quesadilla dish with a bit of flare in that dipping action. Really tasty Chili Aji sauce. Here's the Pork Carnitas Tacos with Chipotle Aioli & Raddish Escabeche (50rmb). These are fucking scrumptious, for sure. The Chipotle is really delicious on the pork and it's a lovely salty little light meal -- tasty and filling, while still being light enough to not take up unnecessary space in your stomach better utilized for alcohol. Lastly, here's Chicken Chicharones with Crispy Tortilla Stripes & Avocado Pickle (60rmb), which is a great sharing dish. I guess most of these are. But yeah, this Chicken Chicharones with Tortilla -- it's like a order of nachos for really interesting people with important and dazzling things to talk about. Very nice. Más' kitchen opens when they do and it stay open a bit later if you're looking for a nighttime snack. Last orders, 10:30ish. Around there. ***

Cellar Door

Moving on into Fanjia hutong, Rain's bar Cellar Door has undergone a bit of a renovation, knocking down a wall and making the thing bigger. Not much else to add to that. It's still the same sort of feel and atmosphere. Indie rock on the playlist -- The Lemonheads, no less -- and people on dates and small groups of friends helping themselves to fridge beer and conversing over candlelight. Pretty nice little gem of a bar that's a bit off the radar from the other more well-known beer bars in the area. The Morose Rockers Hall of Fame is still there. As is gloomy Robert Smith, the weight of the world poised fashionably on his shoulders. Cellar Door has a good Happy Hour if you haven't been yet. Large range of adult beers for cheap every day before 9pm. 20rmb Saranac Pale, Acme, Franziskaner; 25rmb Brooklyns, Red Hook, and Rogues; 30rmb Brewdog, Chimay Blue. Word on the street is that the venue is looking to undergo yet another expansion and put together a food menu. ***

El Nido Pub 'n' Grub

El Nido Bistro. Enter El Nido Pub 'n' Grub. Rebounding from the less than successful restaurant expansion off their original Fangjia venue just a few doors down, the El Nido corp. has completely redone their "bistro" space and relaunched it as a brew pub. A bit of the grub's still there but now it's also got six taps or so serving up Tipsy Face home brew, a Chinese-owned brew company that you might have encountered at Malty Dog, Passby Bar, or The Big Smoke. Beers are 25-40rmb for pints (full beer menu in the picture below) and reduced in price on Monday nights -- that's what that far right column is in that picture, the Monday's night prices. Food is snacks, pizzas and stews with a couple of varieties of each on offer. 20-45rmb or so. So, the space itself has undergone a complete renovation and definitely tilts towards a divier, lovable neighborhood shithole sort of thing. Every wall in the place is a chalkboard, and because they've just got going, they're all still mostly blank, merely anticipating the jubilant defacement that will surely ensue in the coming weeks, months, years. It's kind of like a maze of these chalkboards with darker booth seating available, along with big wooden plank tables for larger groups. It's boozy. Beery. A watering hole. But, yeah, if you're a fan of the first El Nido, no reason why you shouldn't stagger your pissy self down 30 feet of hutong to pop into this one either... ***