Welcome back, Shanghai! Bit of news to start the rumor mill running: Two new up-scale bakeries have opened in Jing'An, Bistro Burger is open again, but smaller, there's some Nest-looking tapas place called Bouchees open on Nanjing Xi Lu, Craft is closing for like the second/third time, Eddy Yang's no longer involved in Gan Bar and my favorite xiaolongbao place is shut for renovations. Boo hiss.

Now Open

First off, there's a new bakery in town called MDB ("Magnificent Bread Destination"). The man behind it is a Japanese fellow by the name of Hiro, who originally helped set up Farine years ago, and worked at a famous high-end bakery in Japan called DonQ for a while. Magnificent Bread Destination Another bakery called O'Mills opened on Yongjia Lu yesterday. It's a cozy-looking two-story space, and the owner is reportedly as particular about the design and materials of the place as she is about the ingredients. Restaurant first, bakery second, the pizzas are apparently, according to always reliable and never cynically motivated WeChat Moments, good. Bistro Burger has reopened after renovations. Last year, they took took over the space where Chala was. They've retreated to their original configuration, and added a bar. Might explain the prominent "COCKTAILS" on the new sign. The neighboring space is being turned into a wine bar or something, unrelated to Bistro Burger. It looks like that place that used to be MYLK (before they did a runner), has been turned into Bouchees from the Hungry Lungs Kitchen people. Which looks like a fancy Nest-ish sort of spot that does global tapas and cocktails.

Casualty List

Crushing news for fans of xiaolongbao who live on or near Yuyuan Lu, ie. me; the original Fuchun Xiaolongbao has closed for some hardcore renovations until May 1. We (and by 'we' I mean that lunatic Chris St. Cavish) have sung the praises of Fuchun in the past as one of Shanghai's porkiest xiaolongbao spots. The place that was Craft, then something else, then Craft again, will be closing tonight (again), before coming back as something else (again). It's complicated. Totally unsubstantiated, wholly irresponsible rumor gossip pipe dream nonsense suggest that the Smash people might get involved. Here's the event listing for their closing party.

The Word Around Town

Gan Bar is now called Bar Flow, and Eddy Yang is no longer involved. No real word on what happened, but it seems like there was some disagreement on how the bar should be run. *** Check back next week for more unsubstantiated, irresponsible F&B gossip.