Oh man, so glad it's Friday. Time to trudge through the snow, grab a cup of hot cocoa and—what’s that? Restaurants and bars have opened and others have closed? Rats. Better write about those. Doors are open on Arkham's lounge thing (but it's in super soft open, guys), Bellagio's LAGO is set for a soft open next week, Kaiba Craft snuck three venues in under my radar last year, and some company called Stone Brewing Co. is opening a restaurant.

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Now Open

So we mentioned a while back that Arkham's lounge 'Asylum' wasn't going to be called 'Asylum' after all. That's a bummer. Less of a bummer is that the new name, Gallium, is okay as well, and it's in soft open. Final touches on the light installation pending, it remains a distressed spaceship lounge bar inside Arkham. Signature cocktails, veep parties, space tassels from the ceiling and furniture that looks like the Budweiser Storm logo. Gallium, picture provided by Arkham Spoilers for the next section, Kaiba Craft in Tianzifang has been shut down. But there're like three other Kaiba Crafts that opened a couple of months ago, located in malls. One in Chamtime Plaza, one in Fuxing Soho and one in Joy City. Looks-obsessed Taizhou/Western fusion cuisine spot Oriental House has opened up a new venue in the Jing'an Kerry Center. Go there, and take pictures. Oh man, Ballers opened up! That's the beer pong and hip-hop bar next to TAXX. They're figuring out their music license, so it might not be blasting Kendrick Lamar yet, but we're guaranteed it will. Unless that decadent devil music has been banned in China, in which case, very little work would be needed to turn it into a retro Tron arcade bar. Our picture even looks like it was stored on a VHS from the 80s...

Casualty List

Kaiba Craft (Tianzifang) See above. Fresh-Off closed, and is planning to move its nutritional Taiwanese sandwich service elsewhere. We mentioned Bombay Bistro opened but failed to mention that it was taking the spot of Genesis, which marks the... third(?) casualty in Found 158. SEL, hotpot place, Genesis... yeah, third. Genesis Oh, and Le Cafe Des Stagiaires (Dagu Lu) is closing down. We wired about it here.

The Word Around Town

West Coast brewers Stone Brewing Co. are launching face-first into Shanghai's saturated craft beer scene with a restaurant like their existing venues in Richmond, Escondido and Berlin. Their beers already occupy some shelf space in beermarts around town, but those come from grey market shenanigans. Now, they've started shipping in from overseas themselves, exclusively in cold-storage. To ensure freshness, they say. They're big on freshness. Expect to see them on tap and in can form around town as they gear up to open a location in the Jing'An temple area. The Bellagio fine dining spot, Lago by Julian Serrano, will be in soft open from Feb 2. Image from the Bellagio website

The Happening

Menus, Parties, Deals, Whatever If you're into the "convergence of food, innovation and stories in China," well, this might be something you'd be interested in. Hatchery, a Beijing F&B start-up incubator is hosting a five-hour event that'll include talks, panels and, naturally, food and drink. The topic is basically future foods. Techno cooking. Hacking the F&B planet. Panelists include Eric Sun (Bits X Bites), Austin Hu (Union Trading Co.), Nat Alexander (Homeslice), Zhiwei (Penguin Guide), and regular SmartShanghai contributor Chris St. Cavish. Takes place tomorrow from 4-9pm. If that sounds interesting, details here. *** Check back next week for more irresponsible, unsubstantiated F&B gossip.