Categories CW's Restaurant & Bar Awards overlooked
A few weeks ago, CW held its annual Restaurant & Bar Awards. Defining the categories can be a tricky task, and yours truly made many an astute suggestion. Sadly, my category suggestion for Most Outstanding Male City Weekend Nightlife Columnist for The Beat was denied. I decided the pen is mightier than the award, so here are The Beat Bar & Club Awards.

Technological advances and social networking systems are one arrow in the quiver of promoters in Beijing, and so the Best Method to Potentially Annoy and Alienate your Target Audience goes to Facebook. Overeager promoters posting ads for their parties on people's personal Facebook pages, inviting people who don't live in China and sending friend requests to people they wouldn't speak to in person are sure ways to put people off an event.

Podcasts, on the other hand, are a great way to spread music and information, and the award for Least Boring Local Podcast goes to Tag Team Records' Pissing on the Bamboo Curtain, which features Chinese music from a variety of genres hosted by local indie rock savants Kyle Page and Ian Sherman. It's online at http://tagteamrecords.com. Runner-up would be the Syndicast, aka the Beijing drum 'n' bass podcast, for ridiculous sound effects, banter and drum 'n' bass tunes.

A pleasant bathroom environment at a bar is as rare as an ayi with teeth in Beijing, and those venues who make the bathroom trip least scarring deserve something. So, I congratulate Italian bar-sandwich shop Panino Teca for winning the Most Pleasant Bathroom Environment category. The vanilla-coconut smell, along with fancy imported bathroom equipment, makes bathroom time almost fun. Finally, my vote for Best Bar Design and Value for Money is the Quickie Mart just south of Star Live and Tango. Beers are reasonable priced, spirits are available by the bottle and terrace style seating on the steps out front is the perfect place to “pre-game” before an event at the nearby venues.

As the Olympics approach and new venues dazzle, my advice is this: Anyone can point the way to the hot clubs in town, but the devil is in the details. Get around the city and make up your own minds about the best destinations for friends and affiliates visiting in the coming months.

Dan Stephenson