By Jessica Wang (thatsbj.com)
Updated: 2008-02-28 14:22

If you eat only carrots, will you turn orange? And IF you eat enough asparagus, will it make your pee smell weird? The place to find out would be IF Juice Bar where they condense more fruit and veg than you could possibly imagine (fresh, of course) into a cup. Thus far, IF Juice outlets are atCentral Park, theSouth German Bakery on Lucky Street, in the Landmark Towers, and the German Food Center on Maizidian(see Dining Directory for details). Juices are squeezed fresh each morning with no added preservatives or sugar. IF alsodelivers in 300ml bottles. At last, we can stop phoning Jamba Juice to lobby for a Beijing store.

Shunyi residents will be able to purchase all manner of baps, rolls and harvest loaves come mid-March, whenComptoirs de FranceBakery (with 153 years of breadmaking under their belt) open theirthird Beijing branch in Europlaza.

Pass By Bar (and restaurant)both recently designated anon-smoking section! The wait staff and non-smoking guests can now enjoy their food in a separate room, free of secondhand smoke and all the dangers that come with it. This is the second restaurant in Nanluogu Xiang to have a non-smoking area, after Xiao Xin’s Cafe. Could this be in anticipation of the much-pulicized government efforts to restrict smoking in public spaces?

Looking for some upscale Cantonese fare? Si Chou Lu at the InterContinental Hotel on Financial Street has reinvented itself asZEN, an opulent “dynasty,” gilt-edged Cantonese restaurant with traditional food prepared by new Hong Kong chef Mark Ko.

Wine connoisseurs, meanwhile, might want to head over to Whampoa Club to sample some of proprietor Jereme Leung’s very own wine label: Stoney Vineyard’s Cabernet Sauvignon 2003 Tasmania, created in partnership with Tasmanian winery Domaine A/Stoney Vineyard. We’ve been told the first 600 bottles of this “medium-bodied wine with distinctly Bordeaux-like aromas and flavors” will be on offer at Whampoa Club for a mere RMB 788 per bottle. A Valentine’s Day treat, perhaps?

Another haute cuisine hotspot is a remodeled machinery and electrics factory set to open at the end of March in the heart of Sanlitun. It’s called1949 –The Hidden City, and is the latest neo-industrial venue to comprise restaurants, bars and art gallery. This factory-chic version of Block 8 includes a “Sugar Bar”encased in a glass house that will serve coffee and chocolaty sweets. There’s alsoDuck de Chine, a Peking duck restaurant with a Bollinger champagne bar;1/5taverna, a grill offering hearty meals and live mariachi bands; andNoodle Bar, a restaurant similar to the Noodle Loft, offering hand-pulled wheat noodle dishes. We suggest you start saving up because you won’t want to miss this place.

However, possibly the most exciting news this month is thatFatburger is coming to town! The artery-clogging-half-pound-of-goodness burgers will be available at the newSolana Shopping Centeron Lucky Street come May. It’s yet to be confirmed whether celebrity co-owners Queen Latifah, Magic Johnson and David Letterman will attend the grand opening.