jiejie

mduell, just wanted to add that if you want to join us but are worried about finding your way and getting transport--not to worry. I can meet you at CCC after your tour, and get you to where you need to be for dinner, and then safely deliver you back at your hotel (St Regis?) at the end of the feast.

anacapa, you enjoy your Turkey Day as well. So Cal sounds cold, but it's freezing here. At least blue skies and little pollution though.

moondog

I booked us a table for 8 people at the lesser Ren (Chaoyang), 7p. The bad news is that they stuck us in the lobby lounge... which is rather depressing. That having been said, they will try their best to move us to the restaurant, pending availability.

I also have a table for 8 booked at Switch! for 6p, but I'm thinking we should just go with the Ren; even if we are forced to sit in the lobby, I'm sure we'll find cool topics to discuss.

After dinner, those who are interested to can join me at Xiu (while I'm not a big fan of Xiu these days, experiencing it on a Thursday night is worth doing at least once in your lives); I can get us around both the line and the cover charge for around 5 people.

trueblu

It will be the three of us incl. 2 yo daughter. See you tomorrow evening.

And given it's past midnight: happy thanksgiving!

tb

mduell

Thanks for the offer, we're going to do our own thing tonight.

Happy Thanksgiving FT-in-China!

mnredfox

Happy Thanksgiving all. I remember last year I ate Chinese food with friends (Drunken shrimp).

fimo

Many thanks for jie-jie for checking in with me, indeed I am in HK so can't join the festivities. I'm not a huge fan of roast turkey but love the fuss and festivities around that trussed bird.... I will draw a turkey hand and join you all in spirit!

trueblu

A quick thanks to moondog et al for organising a fun thanksgiving 'mini-do'.

It was a lot of fun, and nice to meet non-FTers who must think we're all sl. odd!

Happy thanksgiving to those who were there in spirit if not body.

tb

PS I thought the food was rather decent -- esp. the excellent mashed potatoes!

moondog

I had a good time too and felt that our restaurant choice was quite good, especially in light of the short notice. Furthermore, I was quite impressed by the service.

Please accept my apologies for spending the bulk of the evening with my own possy at the small table. My younger friend (who is eager to get into the miles game) was so intrigued by my older friend that he couldn't break away from him. (The older friend doesn't fly commercial often or give a rat's behind about hotel points, but is a really great guy; he'll be in Beijing for the next year+ so I'll try to bring him out again.)

jiejie

And another hearty Thanks to moondog for setting this up. I also thought the food and service was good, and I know I actually preferred the lounge to the restaurant. We even had our own nearly "private" entertainment with the singer and music. We did miss the interaction with your table, but the non FT'ers at our table might be new converts to the website, ha-ha. I think everyone had a great time.

PS: I do hope your friend was reunited with the bag he left behind at the table!

moondog

+1. When I booked it, I was under impression that they were simply going to stick portable tables and folding chairs in the lobby between the door and the reception counter, giving us frequent blasts of cold air and a constant stream of people hauling luggage past. But, they really surprised me. Furthermore, I found that having to walk so far to and from the buffet was actually a benefit to our health.
Only gym shorts, so no big deal, but thanks for taking care of it; he'll pick it up one of these days..... probably en route to Home Plate BBQ (200 meters away), which is quite decent.

trueblu

That's the name of the place I forgot yesterday (Jiatong and jiejie) which makes a decent burger!

tb

Jiatong

My favorite summer burger place is Blue Frog, One can sit outside with a pitcher of beer & smoke a cigar.

& nearby is a neat pizza place, abet hard to find, 'The Tree' also in Sanlitun area. www.treebeijing.com 64131522 /87 Per most, its real hard to find, & service can vary, but the pizza is truly great.

moondog

Well, with the additions of "Next to the Tree" and "Nearby the Tree", they're trying their best to address this problem (not that it isn't easily solvable by asking pretty much anyone on the street in Sanlitun; "The Tree" is a bit of an institution).

GinFizz

Apolgies to all that I couldn't make it for the Thanksgiving dinner. It was always going to be a busy week for me - and in the end that was still an underestimation ...

Good to hear from this thread though that Chef Too is still around - I would certainly be happy to give him some business another time. If I remember correctly he used to also sell roasts from the Chaoyang park Jenny Lou's (or April Gourmet?) - I guess that was before he even opened his restaurant. I also remember some good online food-related discussions with "Chef Billy" several years back when I used to post on the ThatsBJ (now TheBeijinger) forum.

By the way, there is now a copy of the Tree in Wudaokou (The Red House) - complete with wood burning oven and selection of Belgian beers. The pizza there is pretty good - though I won't try and compare it to the original as the last time I ate at the "Tree" it was the tree that was "hidden" and not the restaurant ...

moondog

Do you mean the original "hidden tree" on Nanjie? That was eons ago.