|
|
May-May's Diary
Entry for August 21, 1998
Nike has purchased the basketball court behind the Portman Ritz-Carlton, and has flown in graffiti artists from around the world to work some magic on the outside wall. Stop by and see the work. We've put in a sample here above.
Because we can.
Michelle Garnaut, who runs one of Hong Kong's best restaurants "M at the Fringe", is opening a new place in Shanghai in order to become her own gourmet "tale of two cities". She has snagged a penthouse location plus large balcony on the corner of the Bund and Guangdong Lu and will be serving her own special brand of western cuisine featuring her world famous Pavlovas which are to die for. Target opening date is September.
The Battle of Tom Yam Gung. Michelle Liu, of the famed 1221, is considering opening a Thai restaurant sometime soon. Two other operators are also considering Thai places.
The opera house's fall schedule is out, and with high-priced tickets of up to 500RMB a seat, only to be surpassed by Turandot, directed by Zhang Yimou, held in the Forbidden City in Beijing, with tickets going for hundreds of US dollars, not even beginning to include scalper fees.
The Heineken Open, tennis tournament, is coming in October with stars Michael Chang, and Igor Ivanisevic. Check this space in future issues for venue and ticket info.
Footnote: There is apparently NO truth to the rumor that the roof of the Grand Theatre Opera House doubles as a skateboarding venue during the day.
Byeee!!
Entry for August 19, 1998
The construction work on Yanan Lu has uncovered another hidden treasure from the past -- a circular summer house in the garden of the Kadoorie Mansion on the corner of Urumqi Lu. The experts in this field (make an educated guess) say they were completely unaware of its existence. Investigations into the structure are underway.
A whole bunch of new hotels are opening up, which should make it even easier to find a good deal on a room when your parents come and visit. At the top of the scale, we have the Pudong Shangri-la and the Pudong Holiday Inn. (The Grand Hyatt opening has been pushed back a bit apparently). In Puxi and a cheaper category, we have the Apollo Hotel on Dingxi Lu and the Merry (Meiliyuan) Hotel on Yanan Lu just before Zhenning Lu.
In front of the Merry is one of Shanghai's handful of Chinese temples called the Yuanming Jiangtang (literaly, the Round Moon Talking Shop) which has been spared in spite of being inconvenient on two counts: it's smack in front of the hotel entrance and right in the path of the Yanan Lu elevated highway.
Byeee!!
Entry for August 17, 1998
May-May, the undisputed Queen of Shanghai Nightlife, writes a weekly column on the goings-on in the demi-monde of our city. You can also read her reports, updated several times a week on the Shanghai-ed website.
Niches, boys and girls!! Tight places, difficult to get into, but often very comfortable when you're there!! What am I talking about??! Why, the increasing tendency in our nightlife scene towards small, concept places, that's what!
Have you been to Goya yet? Or Bieyoutian Tea house? Or Eddy's? Le Bouchon? Mingdu Coffee House? They're all miniscule, run by people who are very focussed on a specific theme. May-May the consultant always tells people: have a very clear concept and implement it consistently. I don't have the nerve to try it myself, though. Certainly not in my life!!
I hear that George V is consideringa similar niche approach. "People are tired of these English pubs," declaimed manager Frank, who is not English. "We are not an English pub. I think our decoration is perfect to be a New Orleans French Quarter bar. So that's what we will be!" Oooh la la!!!
The search for new sensations! I got "tea drunk" at the Bieyoutian (Another World) Teahouse one day last week! I didn't know it was possible to get drunk on tea leaves, but it is!! The teahouse is on Huashan Lu, just near the Urumqi Lu intersection, and if you drink several teapots of their best teas you will "float" through the rest of the day. And it's legal too!
The party of the week last week was definitely the MTV launch at Sasha's. Lots of young fashionable, beautiful people, and singing star Na Ying doing karaoke to an M-minus-1 tape of some of her hits. It's a format that works better on TV, I think! But it's good to have MTV in the market. Some competition for the Wu-man and Angela!
I see Christine, once the charming head waitress at the Cotton Club, has moved to George V, which should be good for business all round.
I bumped into someone in the real estate business last week who said the G's Club on Hengshan Lu would open in September. It's about time -- it was originally scheduled to open in 1994. Then I bumped into someone else who actually works with the G's Club and they said November.
"Which year?" I asked.
"That's what everyone says," he replied glumly.
Byeee!!
|
|
