Blinding Elephant Stakes Their Claim on a New Era for Punk Bars

原创 Drew Pittock theBeijinger

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There is an ancient parable about four blind men and their first encounter with an elephant. Though the story varies throughout time and place, the general idea is that each one feels a different part of the animal, describing the size and shape to his compatriots. They can then either choose to believe the account and experience of the others, thus piecing together an image of the elephant, or accuse the others of lying, rendering themselves even more blind by their own ignorance and stubbornness. It is the former part of this story – listening to and learning from the experiences of others – that underpins the ethos, not to mention the name, of Beiluoguxiang’s newest bar Blinding Elephant, which opened last Thursday.

Not even open a week and already a fan favorite

Owned and operated by members of three Beijing bands, Wasted Laika, Xiao Wang, and Hang Nail, the bar is a manifestation of their larger label and collective, Blindspot. With the proprietors’ ages ranging from 23 to 28, they represent a new era of punk music and dive bars in the capital, an era that they hope to make more inclusive and less dogmatic. For anyone who’s hung around punk scenes over the years, it’s no secret that for a community which prides itself on being a safe haven for outcasts and misfits, a welcome home for all of society’s forgotten kids, they can be equally as cliquish, hierarchical, and intimidating as any high school campus.

Three punks walk into a bar...

“I don’t think this is a place where we should tell anyone that they should be something else,” says part-owner and member of Wasted Laika, Xiao Tu. “I want this place to be a place where you can be yourself. You can drink, or you can not drink. You can talk to nobody, just sit here with a beer and stay all night. I just want people to feel comfortable.”

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The three friends had the idea to open a bar back in December, and found their Beiluoguxiang location the following month. However, in true 2020 fashion, they ran into a world of COVID-related roadblocks and had to delay the opening three times. Nevertheless, with plans to host unplugged gigs in the near future, and the fact that they’re just down the street from another newly-opened bar and venue, Nugget Cafe, it’s becoming increasingly clear that Beijing’s greater Gulou-Andingmen area, once the epicenter of the city’s music scene, is seeing something of a DIY renaissance.

Like any good dive bar, it's pretty unassuming

Formerly a small burger stall, Blinding Elephant is a cozy joint akin to an izakaya featuring wood-paneled walls and strips of banner inscribed with calligraphy hanging from the ceiling. It certainly isn’t the biggest bar in town, but it is all the more intimate, the kind of place where you’ll find someone giving an impromptu bass lesson to a friend over beers. It’s a community first and foremost, what one longtime Beijing-expat described as a “clubhouse” reminiscent of bars that were popping up during Beijing’s early-00s DIY heyday.

Two sliders for RMB 65 is just what you'll need to soak up all that liquor

The menu boasts a full liquor cabinet offset by a sizable bottled beer selection and two draft taps. At RMB 80, each band also has its own namesake cocktail, such as the Wasted Laika with honey pepper vodka, whiskey, and Red Bull or the Xiao Wang, a simple gin, lemon juice, and Aperol concoction. Given that the location was already outfitted with all the trappings of a restaurant, Blinding Elephant also has a solid food menu full of snacks perfect for a night of drinking, like liquor-soaked crab (RMB 35), a fried “things” platter (RMB 40), and three mini-burger varieties: blue cheese, Mexican, and teriyaki (2 for RMB 65).

And in the true spirit of “live fast die young” punk rock ethics, the kids behind Blinding Elephant have no intention of sticking around past their prime.

“We don’t want to be a so-called legendary club,” says Xiao Tu. “I think that’s meaningless. All we want to do is the now. And if I find one day that we’re turning into a place where other people should be doing what we’re doing, I’ll close it down.”

Blinding Elephant
2pm-2am (Monday-Thursday), 2pm-3am (Friday-Sunday)
65 Beiluoguxiang 东城区市东城区北锣鼓巷65号