By Matt P. Jager (That's Beijing)
Updated: 2008-01-24 09:52

Oriental Taipan is a spa, with a restaurant just down the way. A cafe and a bakery guard the gates of the eatery.

And now, an Oriental Taipan Bar is hiding in a back room behind the cafe. Late at night, the cafe presumably also becomes a bar area. Here's the good news: It's Oriental Taipan, so it's not bad.

The bar, however, feels more like an afterthought than a well-considered foray into the dark world of nightlife. It seems that the primary investment on behalf of the bar was attaining a 24-hour permit and hiring a singer. A tiny guy with a guitar strums and sings English-language favorites – from country-western classics to Eric Clapton – for the back room, which is stocked with a handful of booths and large black leather chairs.

With a comfortable carrying capacity of about 30 and nondescript upscale decor, the Taipan bar won't make waves.

At best, it is a venue to pre- or post-party in the neighborhood. Stephen Mak, director of the Hong Kong holding company that owns Oriental Taipan indicated that, the unique about his newest establishment  is that customers and members of the spa should have a place to relax and get quality food at all hours of the night from a trusted brand. Then he shrugged and laughed. "Actually there's nothing unique. It's just a bar."