If you thought the last thing the Dongsi area needed was yet another bottled beer market-cum-bar, you weren't the only one. We dislike what often passes for a 'bar' in the single-storeyed parts of town; devoid of standards and personality, but chock-full of juvenile drinking cliques. We'd rather take a warm Yanjing on the corner, thank you very much.
New joint Drunk Begining (cringe), appalling, misspelt name and all, challenges this paradigm with an endearing na茂vet茅 and enthusiasm that, in spite of our best efforts at gin martini-sipping demure adultness, just might win us over. It's a pretension on thin ice, anyway.
With its vinyl-topped tables, white-washed walls, straightbacked benches and absent bar, Drunk Begining, feels more like a noodle shop or, more to the point, a roadside caf茅, than anything resembling a late-night watering hole. But as far as we can tell from the vintage road signs and antique billboard ads, that's kind of the idea.
The owner is part of the newest wave of local craft beer nuts turned bar man, with the menu highlighting a few finds rare in the capital from Belgian brewer Brasserie de Silly and the UK's Fuller's, but primarily stocking big-name continental producers like Chimay, Leffe, and Vedett. We tried several brews, from the bizarre Pink Killer (35RMB), which is like a grapefruit soda into which someone has mistakenly spilled a sip of beer, to the commonplace Piraat ale (30RMB). Well chilled, the bottles were left next to unbranded glasses as if to say, 'you can pour it yourself', but not in a rude way.
In the end the place warmed up, and as the bottle caps kept sliding off, so did our original criticisms. For a well-priced and well-served import beer, Drunk Begining is both a beginning and an end, but that's about it. Without any food offerings and plenty of livelier joints in the area, it's hard to make this a destination, but it's certainly a good place to 鈥 dare we say it 鈥 begin.
