Quite a week. One of Shanghai's most iconic and longest-running French restaurants Cafe Montmartre is closing suddenly today with purported plans to relocate and open up again somewhere else. They cannot say when; they cannot say where. Evidently, the entire building is being renovated. Lots of upheaval on Wulumuqi Lu these days.

*** Cafe Montmartre is famous for being the second restaurant I ever ate at in Shanghai, after buying three fake Hugo Boss shirts at the Xiangyang Fake Market in like 1995. Just kidding. I was more of a fake Armani guy in those days. At their height, there were three Montmartres in Shanghai. Now we're down to none. And so it goes. Shanghai stands still for no legacy French restaurant. Meanwhile, across town, another very high profile restaurant, Table No. 1 at The Waterhouse has transformed into something called Oxalis. Huh. Quite a rebrand. From the most straightforward name possible to something that sounds like a Elvish gem from Lord of the Rings. We'll give that one a closer look when more information surfaces.