Magores Goes to New Orleans

Okay... Here is another post that I typed in advance of the internet access... The events descrived here happened 2 weeks before the date I am posting this...
====

There is a place in Beijing that I heard about even before I came here.

I heard about a club/bar that is geared more for the "over-30" crowd. I fit that description. So, I made a point of trying to find the place once I got here. From what I could tell from maps on the internet, I thought I was about 3 or 4 blocks away from the place. And, I knew the park that it is near.

Well, as it turns out, it wasn't as easy to find as I expected.

First of all, the place is actually about 7 or 8 blocks away from where I live. Still not too bad, you say? Well, let me explain about the concept of "blocks" in Beijing.

Blocks in Beijing are huge.
-For those of you familiar with SF, think about it this way... One block can be as large as going from the south edge of GG Park to Geary Blvd. A small block is like going from Fulton to Geary or Clement.
-For those of you familiar with a certain city in Washington state, here's another example... From 72nd to 64th is a short block. From 72nd past 56th is a "regular" block. And they can get bigger than that.

Keeping in mind that the daytime temprature here is below 0 (and nighttime is worse), you can understand why it's not an "easy walk".

Also, keep in mind that the park the place is near is about 2 Beijing blocks wide, by 4 Beijing blocks tall.

All I knew is that the place I was looking for was near this park.

After a lot of research, I finally figured out more or less where I needed to go. "Taxi Time!"

Cab driver was kind of pissed at me. I knew basically where to go, and I was pretty sure that taking the 3rd Ring (aka freeway) was not what I wanted to do. Driver wanted to take the 3rd Ring. He lives here, he speaks the language. And here is some random MeiGuoRen (American) telling him NOT to do what he expected. Oh well.

It worked out good. I got to see more of the neighborhood I live in. I saw some really nice apartment complexes. I saw a Starbucks. Haven't been there, but from what I hear, one small cup of coffee is $20 RMB. (RMB is the abbreviation for Chinese dollars. USD is US dollars.) For comparison sake, an Egg McMuffin+HashBrowns+Coffee at MacDonalds costs $25 RMB. A fried bread + egg + lettuce thing on the street costs $1 RMB.

Eventually, we arrived where I wanted to go.

"The Big Easy" is a place that was opened by an American living here in Beijing. The basic concept is simple. Take a New Orleans restaraunt/bar and open it in Beijing. Give it the food, the drinks, and the decour. I can see how this would work. Especially, since the place is reasonably close to the US Embassy. I talked to the manager a bit. Apparently the guy died, but his Chinese widow keeps the place open.

The night I was there was a Sunday, so it was fairly slow, as you might expect. Apparently, I missed out on the good singer they have. She is from St. Louis, and is there on Tuesday-Saturday. But that was okay. It gave me a chance to check out the place, and to talk to the bartender, manager, etc.

My impression of the place? Overall, very nice. It was more restaraunt than bar, which was a little disappointing for me and my purposes. It looks just as what I expect a restaraunt/bar of this type to look like as if it were actually in New Orleans. Two levels, with an open floor so the 2nd floor can see the band on the first level. The stairs leading up/down are circular. Don't get too drunk and attempt these. The food? I didn't do a full meal ($100 RMB +), but I did order the spicy chicken wings ($42 RMB). They were quite tasty and spicy. And, I saw a few other things on the menu (chinese = cai dan) that looked pretty good. Reasonably decent selection of beer. Budweiser bottle was $40 RMB. I skipped that. The Grolsch was around $40 RMB also. I decided for the pints of Carlsberg draft (draught) beer ($35 RMB).

Don't ask me how much I spent that night. It was a lot. That's all I know.

And the next morning, I felt like hell.

So, there we go...

Spent too much money. Felt like hell the next day. Had a good time. I guess that's what visting New Orleans is all about. Even if you do it while in Beijing