Celebrate 13 Years of Centro With DJs, Dancing, and Lucky Draws, Nov 25-26

Ask anyone and they'll tell you that 13 years is a long time in the F&B business. Yet 13 years in the business is exactly what Kerry Hotel Beijing's first-floor bar Centro is celebrating this year.

Centro was the first in Beijing to make the hotel bar seem cool, at a time when the words "hotel bar" were more likely to conjure images of sad and lonely businessmen knocking back the whiskeys and counting down the hours until they can hop a flight home (it's a timely coincidence that Lost in Translation, in which Bill Murray spends plenty of time sipping Suntory at Park Hyatt Tokyo's New York Bar, also came out in 2003). 

Centro came on the scene with slick, open plan decor (renovated in 2011 to bring it into the two thousand and teens), actually talented house bands playing current hits, and well-crafted cocktails in an era of RMB 5 Tsingtaos – things we young whippersnappers might take for granted nowadays but that I am assured by more long-term Beijing residents were revolutionary at the time (and won them multiple Beijinger Bar and Club Awards).  

Its reputation as a "cool hotel bar" aside, to what else can we attribute Centro's continued success? Is is the daily buy-one-get-one-free happy hour on generous house pours and cocktails, which runs for an equally generous four hours from 5-9pm (and again from midnight to 1pm)? Is it the slew of internationally-renowned guest bartenders shaking things up behind the bar? Is it the thoughtfully filtered air? Whatever the case, most nights Centro is still packed out with white collar workers enjoying that aforementioned happy hour or, later in the evening, tables of revelers enjoying the house band.

If you're one of those loyal fans, head down there this weekend to help Centro celebrate their 13th birthday, with lucky draws, dance shows, a guest DJ, and prizes for "best dressed." The party starts from 9pm on both Friday, November 25 and Saturday, November 26. 

More stories by this author here.

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Photo courtesy of Kerry Hotel Beijing