Luga's New Basement Bar

He's already the owner of a Sanlitun mini-empire presiding over two bars serving cheap drinks, frozen margaritas and Mexican food, a Thai restaurant and a Vietnamese pho restaurant. Having marched into and conquered neighboring territory - the former Boutique Wine Cellar below Luga's Villa - Luga, the Napoleon of the East, is now summoning his subjects to celebrate the opening of his new bar Luga's Basement in that space this Saturday.

At the Beijinger's Reader Restaurant Awards party a couple of weeks back, Luga told us the Basement will be a sports bar, similar in style to Luga's Villa. He added that he'll be positioning the Basement more as "the bar" and the Villa more as "the restaurant," though no major changes are expected at the Villa. The Basement's launch party features live broadcast of the match between Manchester United and Chelsea (kickoff 7.45pm) that could go a long way to deciding who wins this year's English Premiership, with Arsenal vs. Wolves at 10pm. The party starts at 6pm. Beijing Boyce has more on Luga's Basement, as well as news on renovations at Maggie's, management changes at Club Le Zazou, and Shanghai cocktail bar Constellation's plans to open a Beijing branch in the next few months. Meanwhile, look out for a review of Luga's Basement in the May issue of the Beijinger.