Hey Shanghai. Do you like Charlie's? How about more Charlie's? Like four more Charlie's? Sound good? Great, just skip to the bottom of the article. Meanwhile, The Blind Pig shut its doors on Laowaijie. It's part of a general sort-of-closing-down that's been happening along the eastern length of that street. And Commune Social has posted a job offer for new Head Chef on the best damndest jobs board in the city (that's ours). All this BS, and more, could be yours, if you only...

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Now Open

If you missed it last week, we sent our only actual food writer to try The Milkshake Bar, Truck Stop Grill and Styx, all in like, two days. See how/if he survived the ordeal and what he thought of the places right here. New Bund place Empire had it's soft opening this weekend on the Bund, doing its Bund thing. "Empire's" a nice name, sort of surprised no one else has used it yet. Have they? Anyway, Bund Empire looks all right! Food's a mix of things, drinks are pretty good, in that 70-90-ish Bund range. Hey, it's a new Bund thing. The Shanghailander Wine Cafe opened up on Yongjia Lu, winning the coveted "Most Shanghai Expat Name of All Time." Archaic term referring to expats? Check. Wine? Check. Cafe? Double-check. Shanghailander's also the name of this blog about historical Shanghai stuff, it's not bad. Are they related? No idea. But Shanghailander is a terrible, terrible word. Rolls off the tongue like a car crash in a razor blade warehouse. Wine Cafe looks fine.

Now Closed

JZ has closed! Probably till the end of this week. They're doing renovation work. Not "renovation." What we're saying is that they'll probably recover from these renovations. Since they aren't "renovations." Blue Feaster and Ashley Steak & Salad shut down. Sad face. Finally, Big Bamboo's bourbon/smokehouse The Blind Pig shut down as well. That's a bummer, that place was good. It seems like it was the victim of a general drive on Laowaijie to shut down the places on the eastern half of the street to make way for metro line works. Which is a bummer, The Blind Pig only opened up like four months ago. But fret not, bourbon fans, the rumor is that they're moving closer downtown. Which sort of works for everybody, I think.

The Word Around Town

If you're not familiar with Charlie's, it's a burger shack that's pretty well-liked despite the brioche bun. Personally, I forgive them for that because they make really good comfort food. They're also the people behind Dos Locos and The Milkshake Bar, both of which also have things on their menus that would kill lesser men; the Burgerito, and the milkshakes, respectively. It's headed by Charles Zeng, a young, prolific restaurateur who has decided he wasn't prolific enough; As we mentioned a while ago, Charlie's is, in fact, expanding. Massively. Like, "four new places in the next six months" sort of thing. We've got a new Charlie's coming into Super Brand Mall probably September/October, another in Fengsheng Li coming start of 2018, and two in Xujiahui end of 2017, start of 2018. Of course, they also told us that the Milkshake Bar would be done in like May and it only just opened so... pinch of salt. But that's a lot of Charlie's, regardless. Last bit of news, Commune Social is looking for a new Head Chef. How do we know? Their requirements are posted on our site! With 4 years experience in the F&B industry, or a 2 year degree from an accredited culinary university/college and 2-4 years experience in the F&B industry, you, too, could run one of the city's better tapas places.