What are the criteria for a bar to be called a success in Beijing? Sheer longevity? A steady mix of regulars and drop in
trade? It's a clich, but the Tree really is a Beijing institution - casually busy any night of the week, cozy with wall-to-wall drinkers on the weekend. Ambling past the bar, expect to hear smatterings of Spanish and French, German and Scandinavian notes, mingling with the English and Chinese conversation.
The secret of its success is about as well hidden as the tree sprouting through the bar's center from which it takes its name. They have lots of really fantastic beers and great pizza. Wheat and malt beers on tap (Hoegaarden and De Koninck, 35RMB), real Beamish stout brewed in Cork (45RMB), and dozens of unusual bottled offerings for which, if you can get your tongue around the pronunciation, your taste buds will certainly thank you.
Behind the bar, the soft amber light enshrines another holy grail for the Beijing drinker - a selection of single malts that would put most bars in the land of thistle and tweed to shame. The shooters are imaginative too. Try a 'Jo's Pain' (Jack Daniel's, Sambuca and Kahlua 35RMB) to smooth the rough edges off the winter weather.
The Tree is also praised for its business networking opportunities. I don't really know what to make of that, but if it means some guy in a suit might go dutch with you on a Quattro Formagi pizza (65RMB) it can't be a bad thing. One regular, Xu Cheng, works for Sony Ericsson: "When colleagues come over from Sweden, I exhaust them with sight seeing, then I finish them off with shopping. I let them recover in the Tree."
Pop in after work for Belgian beer stew, a bottle of Delirium Tremens (50RMB), maybe a little live music. Makes you wish you lived a bit closer.
Text & photos by Gareth George
The Tree, 43 Bei Sanlitun Nan Lu, Chaoyang District.
(China Daily 02/07/2007 page10)
