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Drinkers' Playtime When diners arrive at the Sports City Cafe, they can order a drink before dinner and work up an appetite with a quick run down a ski slope, a round of pool or a little one-on-one basketball before sitting down to a meal. Between courses, a little work on the three-point shot is a perfectly acceptable way to pass the time. Welcome to Beijing's most participatory sports bar, the only place in town where it's OK to play with your food. The cavernous cafe, covering 2,000 square meters on the third floor of the Gloria Plaza Hotel at the intersection of the Second Ring Road and Jianguomennei Dajie, lives up to the description its entertainment manager, Kelsie Stephen, offers without a moment's hesitation. "I think it's an adult playground, I really do," she says. The hardwood court in the middle of the main dining room bears this out, and the sound of basketballs being dribbled mixes with giggles from a group of young women trying out their lay-ups - in sensible leather flats. As befits an international city, there is a global range of sports fandom here, with pictures of Inter Milan soccer star Ronaldo and the Argentine football team sharing space with Formula One superman Michael Schumacher's grinning portrait. With a South African band that plays Latin music as part of its repertoire and genial local staff who can rattle off the names of the dishes like sportscasters, Sports City covers most bases. The food, too, is served all over the court of cuisine. Chef Billy Bolton, an exuberant, raspy-voiced New Yorker, says the menu covers a range of American and Asian food "from burgers to lobsters." True to form, there's a strong sports theme to the names of the dishes, with some of Bolton's puckishness offered up to meet diners' peckishness. Food and drink come in American-style portions, one of which would be enough to satisfy two people. There's the Kick-off Tuna, a variation on a Japanese sushi roll, and the Technical Foul, the capital's nearest thing to a genuine Philadelphia cheese steak sandwich. Dragon Boat spring rolls are part of the Asian section, and Super Bowl Sunday Skewers -- marinated grilled quail -- are one of the higher-end suggestions. Prices range from the 55 yuan Slam Dunk Burger to the 208 yuan steak. There is a 15% service charge. But as manager Alvaro Rautenberg points out, food is only part of Sports City Cafe's intended purpose. "There's a place for everyone to fit in," he says as the nets that keep errant basketballs off the tables are pulled up and the court becomes a dance floor. Diversions from drinking and dining abound. A quartet of pinball machines, a brace of dart boards, and snooker and billiards tables are tucked on the other side of the restaurant, just off the cigar room, which Stephen says offers a quiet spot in a place that? geared to a more active kind of leisure. There's a putting green and a slew of games, from low-tech basketball shooting booths to alarmingly realistic driver's seat perspective video game simulations of car, motorcycle and ski races. Lunch is served on the opposite side of the cafe, where a racetrack decorative theme dominates. It's a smaller area, but the menu is the same. Beijing may have more than its share of restaurants, but for now, the Sports City Cafe is the only place where visitors can walk away from a mountainside tumble and immediately plunge into a sizeable margarita. Sports City Cafe: Gloria Plaza Hotel, Second Floor, 2 Jianguomennei Dajie, Beijing. Lunch: 11 am - 4 pm |
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