Sweet Potatoes Go Gourmet, Spelling Out Dirty Bar Street's Demise Once and For All

[UPDATE]: This pop-up has since shut down.

As if it weren’t enough for Dirty Bar Street to be beautified, with nearly every sleazy bar and questionable street hawker whisked away since Bejing began its Great Brickening campaign in earnest last year, the once debaucherous alley has now hit the nadir of gentrification. That new era comes courtesy of Bite By Callus, a gourmet sweet potato pop-up shop now open for business on the Taikooli adjacent alley until Dec 5.

The notion of such a spot is enough to make most Beijingers chuckle. After all, sweet potatoes were once commonly served up throughout China out of dingy oil drums by migrant street sellers. Taking a snack that was once pocket-change priced, and fancifying it for the Food-stagram age sounds more like self-parody than the next foodie craze, akin to slapping foie gras on a jianbing in a five-star restaurant (translation for any laowai unfamiliar with Chinese fare: truffle-topped hot pockets).

Read more about the gentrification of Dirty Bar Street here.

But should any of that matter if the sweet potatoes actually taste good and, better still, are safer than the hazardous bins that they were formerly sold street side? No, of course not. And the sweet potatoes on offer are the real deal, despite the goofy concept and decor. At RMB 26, the pine nut and black tea condensed milk topped sweet potato we ordered is far pricier than the chump change prices we’re used to paying, it nevertheless had the wholesome texture and firm skin that has made this street eat such a mainstay in China. The seeds gave it a welcome crunch and sweet tea drizzle gave it a trendy foodie quality that’ll put influencers in a frenzy.

And the sanitized prep will, most noteworthy of all, ensure you don’t get food poisoning (although it might give you pangs for the days when migrants with gumption could make a living slinging cheap eats without a whiff of pretension). Other liquid toppings include butter, peanut butter, mozzarella, honey, and brown sugar (RMB 3 each), and you can also get walnut, banana, almonds and other such toppings sprinkled on top for RMB 4 each. A plain, “old-fashioned” sweet potato will set you back RMB 17.

This pop-up has been set up by the same team that owns nearby sweet shop Sugar Cup and Callus, a Chinese-American company dealing in vintage lifestyle wares, and they have outfitted Bite with an Americana ambiance from a bygone era. Staff sport railroad threads, and place the sweet potatoes in rotisserie ovens that evoke a coal engine. The overflowing sacks of sweet potatoes add to that nostalgic atmosphere, though it's all a bit surreal considering the just how little this Chinese snack has to do with the US. Regardless, it’s a fun and eye-catching motif that didn't seem to put off the long line of Chinese patrons looking for a zany take on a snack that has become a rarity, in this era of crackdowns on unregulated but affordable bites. 

Bite By Callus
Daily midday-midnight (open until Dec 5). Southwest corner of Sanlitun 3.3 Building (next to First Floor)
三里屯3.3大厦外西南角

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Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
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Photos: Kyle Mullin, courtesy of Bite By Callus