Bartender of the Year Leaves Q Bar

George Zhou, who you voted "Best Bartender" in the Beijinger's 2009 Reader Bar & Club Awards, has left Q Bar, the massively acclaimed bar he created with long-time sidekick Echo Sun. A press release we received from Q Bar this morning states:

"Beijing's leading cocktail lounge, Q Bar announces today a restructuring of its ownership. Since opening at the top of the Eastern Inn in Sanlitun South Street in 2006, Q Bar has established a solid reputation as one of Beijing's best nightspots with its imaginitive drinks menu, bar food and a spectacular rooftop terrace. Ralph Ziegenhorn and Echo Sun, two of the original partners at Q Bar have now taken over the share of George Zhou, the third original partner. The move is an amicable parting of the ways based on differing views of the future of the company and the partners' management styles, and marks Ralph and Echo's commitment to the ongoing development of the Q Bar brand and offering.

The two partners assure loyal patrons that it will be business as usual at Q Bar; we will continue to serve the same imaginative, high quality drinks and bar food to a soundtrack of hip lounge music including funk and electronica, and with the summer fast approaching, Q Bar's extraordinary roof terrace will soon be coming into its own as the premier outdoor lounge space in Beijing. Details of our forthcoming events and ongoing developments will be available online at www.qbarbeijing.com"

Echo Sun and principal investor Ralph Ziegenhorn will soldier on with Q Bar, whcih was named "Outstanding Bar of the Year" in last year's voting. It appears Echo and George had differences of operating philospohy that came to a head when the opportunity arose for the Q Bar team to invest in Houhai watering hole Obiwan, which Echo endorsed and George resisted. When Echo went ahead and took a stake in Obiwan despite an agreement between Q Bar's prinicipal investors that none would get involved with other bars unless all parties consented, things started to fall apart. Finally, this week an agreement was reached to pay out George for his 1/3 stake.

As one of Beijing's top drink mixers, George should be hot property. That's if he doesn't decide to branch out on his own, which he's rumored to be strongly cosidering.

More on this story at Beijing Boyce, who broke the story late last night. A comment is expected from George Zhou later today.