Comments on: Sorry, We’re Closed: The Den Shuts It Down

By: SF

SF — Sun, 03 Jan 2016 03:19:16 +0000

Damn. Can’t believe I’m three weeks late to mourn the demise of The Den.
I always appreciated the general friendliness, as well as patience, of the staff.
Thanks for the many great (fuzzy) memories of 4:00 a.m. meals, shoulder-to-shoulder sports viewing, laughing with the multicultural prostitutes, attending Sunday morning NBA games, sipping decent coffee, staying out way too late, and watching numerous drunken fights/yelling matches, including the 12 woman cat fight between Mongolian and Chinese hookers which spilled outside upon the sidewalk. Soon, a mass of women in 5 inch heels and tight skirts were wrestling on the ground, pulling hair, and tearing at one another’s clothes–all of this at 7:30 am as streams of business persons walked by on their way to work staring open-mouthed, but never breaking stride. Watching the spectacle felt embarrassing and horrible, yet bemusing, while providing a beautifully flawed portrait of everyday life and humanity in BJ–or at least within the confines of The Den. Eventually, two employees and three ex pats, myself included, waded amongst the scrum to break it up. (This being China in 2013, certainly no passers by were going to assist). After which the realization dawned on me of my need to go home and sleep. Ah, The Den, I will miss you dearly my friend. Hope to see you in another life. Cheers.

By: FOARP

FOARP — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 16:51:52 +0000

Meh, only went in there a time or two – company I used to work for would put us up at the Swissotel up the road so it was within easy reach. Like Blue Skies in Nanjing or Carnegies in Taipei (both of which, come to think of it, were better places to hang out) it seemed mainly a place for ageing engineers to hook up with middle-aged hoes. Do remember chatting to a bloke about the multiple times he was kidnapped flying helicopters for the UN, though.

By: JM

JM — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 14:20:22 +0000

A very enjoyable read – the only point I felt missing was the inevitable argument about the mysterious extra items added to your bill every other time you went. And fuck those cocktails, it took me a few tries to realise I could just walk five minutes if I wanted something that didn’t taste like cheap vodka and tang.