Topwin Mall Gets an F&B Shake Up, Ousts Favorites Shawarma Dareen and Fatboy's

Major changes are afoot at one of Sanlitun’s hottest fast food dining spots. Topwin Center is ousting some big names – such as Shawarma Dareen, Fatboy’s The Burger Bar,  and Cows Creamery – from its premises by month’s end.

Popular lifestyle blogger Jim Boyce posted about Dareen’s closure yesterday, while Fatboy’s owner and Topwin's manager both confirmed with the Beijinger that the burger bar is being shown the door.

“We’d like to have more new style restaurants for 2019,” Topwin's General Manager Flora Geng told the Beijinger about the shakeup, adding that a revamp is necessary to rid the mall of underperforming outlets and to maintain buzz in Beijing’s ever competitive food scene.

Those closures will be accompanied by some big openings as well as facelifts to the remaining outlets so that their offerings won’t grow stale. Below we breakdown some of the major changes so that you can keep tabs on where your favorite lunch spot may or may not be in a couple of weeks.

Shawarma Dareen – a hit among expats due to its straightforwardly satisfying, and more importantly, damn cheap shawarma and falafel wraps – will leave the mall within nine days. Geng says it will be replaced by another Muslim concept with a wider variety of dishes, all at similar prices. Dareen Shawarma Manager Ahmad Sarieh says he and his colleagues hope to reopen elsewhere, but admits those plans are up in the air.

As for Fatboy’s The Burger Bar, news has it that they will be replaced by a Japanese barbecue joint by the end of May. Its owner says the brand is going strong enough elsewhere, including three new openings across Southeast Asia by year’s end. They hope to open a new Beijing location by the third quarter of 2019 once they find a new location. This is an especially big blow to Fatboy's after the closure of their other Beijing Branch next to The Place earlier this year due to an ownership change.

A number of other popular Topwin spots will remain in business like Avocado Tree, which is undergoing renovation for the next two weeks as part of Topwin’s mandate to up the design of many of its restaurants. Neighboring basement big draws like Cheers Wine and Hubei-style oven-baked bread maker Agan Guokui will remain unchanged. Upstairs hotspots like Beyond Yakitori and Unico Lounge will remain open, and there are rumblings that a new R&B nightclub will soon open in the place of Space One.

Canadian ice cream shop Cows Creamery, which garnered plenty of buzz upon opening but has since seen sluggish sales, will close later this month. No word yet on if or where they will reopen, though they have survived a closing once before after losing their original location off Xindong Lu.

Tea purveyors Papp’s Tea has already closed its Topwin branch. However, you can still order from their online shop.

CouCou, which sports a perpetual queue on account of its fiery hotpot and addictive milk tea, will in fact open an entire café dedicated to the sugary brews though the opening date is still being finalized.  

By week’s end, a new whiskey shop called Mr. Alba’s will open on the mall’s ground floor. The store will initially stock around 200 SKU, though the owner aims to double that inventory in the months to come. Mr. Alba's will be the exclusive mainland China seller of a few brands like Springbank scotch and focuses on single malt whiskey and a few types of gin (forgoing blended whiskeys altogether).

Later this month a Japanese food street will also open on the sixth floor with a smattering of izakaya, yakitori, and teppanyaki restaurants, as well as Basho Japanese Whisky Bar and Daiki Shoten, which will stock authentic Japanese wares.

All in all, it seems Topwin's frequent patrons will find some positives and negatives from the ongoing shake-up. We for one will shed a tear for Shawarma Dareen, yet we're also licking our lips in anticipation of the promising newbies that are on their way.

READ: Beijing's Largest Remaining Central Electronics Market Bainaohui to Close in June

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Email: kylemullin@truerun.com
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Photos courtesy of Fatboys, Kyle Mullin, Tom Arnstein