(cityweekend)
Updated: 2006-08-08 11:13

Is Beijing ready for Area? Is Lido? Are you? Owner-preneur Yang Dong is betting yes. No doubt, Area kicks the nightclub standard up a notch.

A welcome antidote to the Babyfacefication of the Beijing scene, Area banks on hip-chic interior landscaping and a sultry Hollywood Hills style patio (cut by a grid of blue-lit water channels!) to draw in the A-list while keeping out the Sanlitun riff-raff. All creamy coziness, the downstairs club area is divans, pillows and billowy curtains. Private, but not paranoid, relaxed but not soporific, you can still scope hotties or starwatch while puffing a hookah.

Unfortunately, cocktails (RMB 40) prove to be Area's weak point. A-listers don't drink kool-aid concoctions. More attention to mixology! With name DJs spinning house every weekend, there is every indication that Area will fall prey to pretension and you'll have to know someone to get in. But for now, you can still kick a boot on the dance floor as the future happens around you.