Thursday, June 30, 2011

So, farewell then... Aluss

Oh dear. Aluss, the "Amilal II" on Gulou Dongdajie has abruptly closed down.

I always thought it seemed a bit of a quixotic - not to say pointless - venture, but I wasn't expecting it to fold after less than 4 months. It was quite a promising special event space for art shows and parties and such (I only looked in 5 or 6 times, mostly for the occasional music nights there), but I couldn't see any potential in it as a bar (although Alus, the owner, didn't seem too concerned about that, as he was trying to run a little furniture business out of it as well). However, it had seemed to be starting to do pretty well: quite a lot of the young-and-trendies - and even a few of Amilal's crusty long-time 'regulars' (the hardcore all date back to Alus's previous place on Nanluoguxiang, Sandglass) - had appeared to prefer its larger, airier space to the original hutong hideaway, and it was drawing good crowds over the weekends.

Reasons for the sudden change of plans are sketchy. I assume it's some kind of landlord dispute - perhaps the head landlord cutting up rough about his tenant (the clothes shop downstairs) sub-letting without his approval, perhaps just the customary Beijing rent gouge... perhaps Alus realising that he was paying too much already for the place ever to be viable. Oh well - I hope the dear chap didn't get his fingers burned too badly.

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