Published by Swiss James on 22 Oct 2009 at 12:51 pm
Putting a Bar in Barbie
the Barbietini
It says something that Shanghai was chosen to open the World’s first Barbie megastore. It says something alright, and I hate to think what.
The store itself is a nightmarish riot of pink plastic, blonde hair and spoilt children. I could happily have lived the rest of my life without visiting it.
But how can you resist the bar on the top floor which sells drinks called the Bubblicious and Ken-tini?
You can’t. I went last Saturday.
Maybe it’s best not to think about whether it’s OK to have a fully stocked bar at the top of a Children’s toy shop.
Staggering drunkenly past a 5 year old girl eating pink cupcakes is weird- I haven’t done that since I got fired from Disneyworld for puking in my Mickey Mouse head.
David Laris runs the place however, and if anyone knows anything about selling Martinis to gay men, it’s him.
The drinks (45-55RMB for cocktails) are delicious, the service was bang on (very friendly, free shots), happy hour (5-7 every day) is a 2-4-1 bargain and the burgers on other people’s plates looked good.
“John” and friends
Here’s the main point though- next weekend is Halloween. Can you think of a better, camper place in the world to kick off a fancy dress party?
Barbie Cafe (6th Floor)
550 Huaihai Zhong Lu, near Chengdu Lu
Opening hours: the website says till 2am on Fri & Sat, 10pm on a school night. I’ve read 9:30/10pm elsewhere though.
Call on 6171 6036 to make sure, or reserve a table.
Heh. I know who you are now.
Was having lunch with Woai and he told me he went to the Barbie Cafe, so I assume you were there with him too, and the same guy that does podcasting with him?
I only just realised all that, must be living under a rock!
Okay, is anyone else getting alarmed at the amount of pink on this blog recently. It’s is not true that ‘real men’ can wear pink and I really don’t think anyone in their right mind would be seen drinking a pink Barbie-tini!
I think WoAi’s metro male is rubbing off on you in a not so good way.
You update your blog more than any other expat I follow. Keep it up, man. And splurging on a little pink every once in a while is healthy…. right?!
Bev- WoAi? I’ve never heard of him!
Kim C- hmm, OK- where can I send colour samples for your approval?
Clark- have you seen shopgirl?. Three times a day, every time she eats a meal!
HAVE TO GO THERE!!!!!! Only been to the spa two times.
AHHHHHHHHHH barbietini, that’s is sooo ME!!!!!!!!
I’d just like to clarify I have never rubbed off Swiss James. Oh wait, rubbed off ON James, okay, forget what I just said. Them Barbie-tinis (Baileys AND Malibu, what more could you want in a cocktail) were well tasty. The Ken-tinis were way stronger than I like my cocktails.
do you guys ever fight about what you are posting, like when u go to same events.
Shoppers- yes it’s definitely your kind of place, I think you’d love it!
WoAi- yes I remember you asking the barman for some fizzy water to put in your Kentini as it was way too strong. I thought that was fair enough, but did you really need your parasol inside the bar?
Shoppers II- nah, it’s first come first served. Anyway if we both go somewhere, usually only one of us remembers a camera, so they get first dibs.
My coworkers and I had an unfortunate and embarrassing time both inside and outside the Barbie Store as part of a work party. Not the bar, though the catwalk was involved.
I have a post of some of the aftermath here:
http://www.nikdaum.com/news/2009/04/tuesday-in-shanghai.html
Shoppers – And often nobody remembers to bring a camera so nobody posts about it. But as James says, we rarely blog the same stuff but even if we did, our styles and approach are so different, it would not be like two / three identical posts anyway. My post would show James looking gay, his post would show me looking gayer. And Dingle would be asleep.
Come off it Woai, if we all blogged about the same night you would just go on about how expensive all your clothes were, James would go on about the pink drinks and I’d go for “the colour of my poo the night after Barbie bar”
i think dingle hit the nail on the head!
Nik Daum- it looks like you went to the 5th floor where they have the catwalk, one to try next time I reckon. Your pink pyjamas are very fetching by the way
WoAi- it’d be an interesting expermient actually- we’d all have to schedule our posts to go up at the same time, and then we could compare and contrast!
Obviously that’s far too organised for 3 people who have had to cancel a podcast session for 5 days running now though…
Dingle- I could tell you about the smell of it after that night in Jie Pai- it smelt like Baijiu. Grim.
Angie- another vote for trying it out then?
SJ, did you borrow Shoe Tuesday buddy’s pink shoes to go to the pink store? Ken-tini sounds deeeeeeeeeeeeeelicious. Is that for real? don’t tease single gals out there in the cyber space now!
Miss Jane- the Kentini is a delicious blend of something gingery and vodka, and it is as real as you or I! Sadly I didn’t speak to the guy in the pink shoes, he was too engrossed in the jewellery.
Engrossing in the jewelery just sounds dodgey!