By Matt P. Jager (That's Beijing)
Updated: 2008-02-14 14:10

Hotel bars can feel like rich dorks who buy expensive toys to get their classmates to play with them. Even with unlimited resources, impeccable design, and innovative gimmicks. What's more, no self-respecting food-and-beverage manager aims to run a hotel bar. They want bar bars, classy cocktail-wells for locals. So why would a bar that doesn’t want to be a hotel bar look over the entirety of the hotel lobby? And why would a bar that doesn't want to be a hotel bar have prices that scream five-star hotel (RMB 78-88 for cocktails, RMB 40-78 for beers, RMB 58 for shooters)?

Stop by the JW Marriott’s new bar Loong (pronounced like a Chinese dragon) to inquire. I’ve been there a few times. One rollicking Friday night saw a bartender pouring flaming spirits together like a drunken alchemist as the Australian-Mauritian house band set up. Later, a post-work Monday tipple found the joint entirely deserted. Loong was designed to accommodate the kind of crowds that fill Centro (one of the few bar bars in a Beijing hotel), but on a slow night the bar’s sheer size swallows customers, as wait staff in open-necked silk fade into the shadows.

When it is full, Loong can comfortably seat over 80 patrons without feeling packed. The decor is understated upscale, with an impressive crystal dragon hovering over the mother-of-pearl bar. The band plays every night (except for Sunday) from 9pm. Outdoor seating is scheduled to open for the summer, and the bar nuts are excellent.

I'm reluctant to pass judgment on Loong, because I still remember my premature predictions after my first visit to an empty and expensive Centro back in 2004. Loong’s best bet to carve a place for itself is to trust the trickle-down from JW Marriott's director of food and beverage, a creative Austrian with some commendably loony ideas that will turn your preconceptions of a five-star hotel on their head. Think power hours, raves, and buckets of booze. And do your best to think bar bar, not hotel bar.

Loong Bar
Daily 5.30pm-2am.
2/F, JW Marriott, 83 Jianguo Lu, Chaoyang District
5908 8995