Thanks for All the Mammaries: Hooters Shutters After 12 Years

Despite the initial weirdness, in some ways, China-side Hooters were trailblazers, severing themselves from their US overlords in favor of something that was intended to be more family-oriented and wholesome. For one, "they hired girls on personality rather than physical attributes." Now it seems that the only way that we'll be able to get the real American Owl experience in Beijing is by rewatching this golden nugget of history from CBS: youtube.com/watch?v=IhVpmVNfIcY.

'Sculpting' runs out of time
Though perhaps less relevant to all but the oldest of old-school expats, another closure has caused significant chatter this month: that of the original Sculpting in Time café in Wudaokou.

Opened in 1997 by a young entrepreneurial Chinese couple, Sculpting in Time is regarded as having provided the first proper taste of café culture to Beijing, a full two years before Starbucks opened their first mainland store in Guomao.

Several other Sculpting branches followed across the city and further afield in Nanjing, Shanghai, Fuzhou, Shenzhen, and Dalian, attracting students with kitsch movie posters, classic books, cats, and most importantly, well-priced cups of joe.

A picture shows the shuttered original Sculpting in Time venue

Part of the problem seems to have arisen from the fact that management was struggling to make a profit in an increasingly competitive market, ballooning rent and salaries.

"In order to make more money, as many tables and chairs were added in each store. The quiet environment disappeared, moving around became inconvenient, and the customer experience suffered," explained Zhuang Zai, co-founder of Sculpting in Time, in a recent WeChat post (in Chinese).

The quiet environment disappeared, moving around became inconvenient, and the customer experience suffered.

After a series of internal struggles, failed investments, and business opportunities gone awry, including a potential acquisition that fell through in 2016, the company slowly began to unravel. The final straw for the original Wudaokou branch came when the property landlord sued the venue for overdue rent. Shortly afterward, the café shut down.

Though the founding venue has shuttered, you can still find a similar cozy experience at the ten other franchise venues in Beijing that remain open.

Whereas it's often the newer, more innovative venues that we're quick to bid farewell to, these two closures are a stark reminder that there's a whole other generation of restaurants that have defied incredible odds to stick it out this long.

This city changes fast. Stay up to date with Beijing's latest openings and closings, right here in this QR code.